YAHPGTHS (Yet Another Harry Potter Goes To Hogwarts Story)
by r2r4l
Summary: Unlike most of my other stories, this one is not a cross-over. It's my attempt to re-tell Harry's original 7 years of Hogwarts. Not fully canon compliant because I alter Harry's personality to more like what I think an abused child would be like at the start. And then I throw him some bones and see how the new story goes. Will be Harry/Ginny.
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER: ** I do not own Harry Potter, or anything you may find in my story that in any way resembles a character, story, or plot that is owned by another person.

**Harry Potter and Yet Another Version of His Hogwarts Years**

I place more emphasis on Harry's abuse before Hogwarts and more emphasis of what I think an abused boy who lived under those circumstances would be like when he first finds out he's a wizard, including bringing all his baggage with him and dealing with it the way an abused boy would, instead of Harry behaving like he had a normal childhood, because abused children don't do that. This alters how he deals with the magical world when he first gets introduced to it. Also makes his personality different, and his story unfolds differently because of it.

Chapter 1

Harry Potter was abused his entire childhood at the Dursley's.

He was beaten constantly, almost drowned a few times, malnourished and unhealthy.

He grew up to be afraid of his own shadow. He was conditioned to hate, fear, and distrust all adults and authority figures, and most other kids.

He swore that someday when he was big enough he would kill Vernon Dursley for the things he'd done to him and the things he'd forced him to do. Maybe his aunt too for letting him, and possibly Dudley for being his lead tormenter at all other times.

He had no idea magic existed or that he had any kind of future at all that didn't involve delivering hard earned justice to his so-called family.

The local gang kids that he tried to hang around with, who were the only ones that even let him near them, said he couldn't be in the gang until he was 12. It was their rule.

Harry knew that his uncle kept a shotgun and where it was. He wondered if he'd be big enough to use that when he was twelve too. His eleventh birthday was fast approaching and he finally had something to look forward to, he was making plans for his twelfth.

"I'll show them all," he thought, "and then I will finally be free."

So it was that according to the story we all know, Harry had the strange snake incident at the zoo and learned he could talk to snakes. He kept that to himself. Then the owls came, then Hagrid came.

Harry wasn't sure he wanted to go anywhere with this Hagrid character either but anywhere is better than the Dursley's, so he went along to see what that crazy wizard shit was all about.

When they met the goblins and Harry learned he had money and an inheritance and that this man and some Dumbledore character possessed his key and kept it from him all this time, he was furious. But, he kept his cool in front of this giant clown. He would circle back to ask more questions when he was clear of him.

After Hagrid left Harry with his bus fare home, he just waited for Hagrid to clear out then he went right back to Gringotts to ask to see a goblin again. Which he did. And he found out that he could not take out more than ten thousand galleons per year and that two thousand would go to the school automatically for his annual tuition, but the other eight thousand galleons (equal to forty thousand pounds) he could do with as he pleased. Then after he was seventeen he would have access to the rest which was then in total almost eight hundred thousand galleons (or four million pounds). Harry was shocked. He knew he could afford to live on his own for forty thousand pounds per year.

No more Dursley's. He knew it wouldn't be that simple though, he'd have to be sneaky about it.

So he kept asking questions and found that they could sell him a mokeskin money pouch with an undetectable expansion charm that they could also charm feather light for him. He got that and took out six thousand galleons and the other two thousand galleons as five thousand pounds.

Pressing his luck he asked if they knew of any way a kid his age could find a place to live in the magical world, like an apartment or something, without people asking questions because he was a kid. He said he was abused by his relatives and didn't want to live with them anymore, but also didn't want that Hagrid or his friend Dumbledore or anyone else really to know anything about what he's doing and where he's living.

That gave the goblin teller named Grimtooth a huge grin and he said for a small fee of fifty galleons he would personally take him on his break to see someone he knew in a place called Knockturn Alley that could fix him right up. Inwardly Grimtooth thought 'won't this wrinkle the beard of that old goat.'

Harry did a little shopping while waiting for Grimtooth's break. He went back to the shop he bought his trunk from and found out he could exchange the plain trunk he bought for another magical one that had three holds instead of just the one. The first would be the same space as a normal trunk. The other two spaces were basically just two empty fourteen by fourteen foot rooms.

The shopkeeper said that some of the richer kids who got those would often use one room for a library and small study room and the other room for extra storage of whatever they wanted, like Quiddich gear and what have you. He could trade in his current trunk plus two hundred fifty galleons to get the upgrade, and for another one hundred fifty galleons, he would add three runes, one for shrinking/growing, one for featherweight on/off, and the other for access security tied to him alone. He paid the additional four hundred galleons for the full upgrades. They had many more elaborate magical trunks but he thought this would do for starters. He also stopped by a muggle clothing store real quick to get a better fitting set of clothes and shoes, and a ball-cap to hide his scar. He knew he was famous even if he barely understood why and the last thing he wanted was to be recognized.

After that was done Harry returned to meet with Grimtooth on his break who took him to see his friend Fryer, the owner of the Bottomless Flask, an Inn and Bar that was deep within the Knockturn Alley district.

Since Grimtooth was sponsoring him, they got to meet privately with Mr. Fryer without anyone catching any interest. Grimtooth explained who Harry was and the kind of discretion he was looking for. He was shocked that the boy-who-lived would be in his place of all people. So Harry explained some of his life with the Dursley's, to the growling dismay of Grimtooth and the scowling dismay of Mr. Fryer.

"Mr. Potter, while it is true that Knockturn Alley caters to the seedier element in the magical world, I want to re-assure you that not all of us here are dark, and most certainly not all followers of you-know-who. With the story you've just shared I can understand why you would want nothing to do with that hypocrite holier than though Dumbledore and his lot or even the Ministry." said Fryer.

"So, yes. I will put you up here and for my part help keep you hidden from prying eyes. Although I must say I don't know how long you can truly stay hidden from their lot if they go looking for you. I will introduce you to a couple more of my shall we say compatible friends and see if we can help teach you how to stay hidden if that's what you want." said Fryer.

"Thank you Mr. Fryer." said Harry.

"Just call me Fryer for now on." Fryer replied.

Mr. Fryer agreed to give Harry room and board for one thousand galleons per year. He would get the smallest room, and he didn't eat much, and he would only be there during the summer holidays anyway. Plus, he was doing a service to the boy-who-lived. He could give him a break. He would have a house elf bring most of his meals to his room since it wouldn't help for Harry to be seen in the inn very often and he allowed Harry the use of his private back entrance to get in and out for the same reasons.

The next day Mr. Fryer introduced Harry to another friend who knew how to help people stay underground as it were, although this was the first time he was doing this for a kid. But he was recommended by Grimtooth and Fryer, so even though he was the boy-who-lived, he would help him out, and he would also be the last person Harry would casually give his real name to while he was operating incognito.

For one thousand galleons the man, Mr. Swift, worked up a full package of magical false ID for him. This would not pass muster with the goblins, but for casual encounters in the magical and all in the muggle world, he would blend in easily.

First was a charmed ring that gave Harry the glamoured appearance of an eighteen year old young man with blue eyes, sandy brown hair, no scar, and different shaped eyes, jaw line, nose, and chin. Another ring that would alter Harry's voice to match his glamoured age, and a muggle drivers license with the name Giles Kerr. Swift told him to use it only for ID purposes until he actually was old enough and learned to drive. It identified his muggle post address as the one used by the Bottomless Flask Inn in case he needed to receive muggle post mail, and he transferred the owl trace to a secure post office box at the public owl post office that would magically and automatically forward mail to him at the Inn.

Finally, he supplied him an untraceable wand so that Harry could practice and use magic and not be seen in his alternate ID using his primary wand that people would soon learn to someday associate with him. He then spent a few hours tutoring Harry on how to use those things and how to manage his circumstances to swap between both ID's with relative ease while maintaining his cover, and how to use the knight bus to get around until he was older.

Thanking him, Harry donned his Giles persona and ventured into the muggle world to establish a bank account and got an ATM card in his name in which he deposited his five thousand pounds.

...

Of course while doing all of that and establishing some freedom of movement with his secret identity, he didn't realize that Dumbledore had blood wards and other monitors tied to him at the Dursley's. It wouldn't be a problem in the near term but eventually it would be. It actually never occurred to him that anyone other than the Dursley's would give a single damn what happened to him, and then only because they would miss their servant and their punching bag.

In any case, Harry improved his muggle wardrobe a bit more and being a kid bought some toys and other fun stuff. He was disappointed to find out that he couldn't use electronics at the Inn because they didn't have electricity installed there. He was starting to think the magical people were all barbarians the way they lived and dressed. Oh well, it was still by far the best gig he ever had so far. Hell, he even got to eat regularly and his bruises were starting to fade without new ones to go on top.

He went shopping at the bookstores in both Alley's and did make a start on the new mini-library in his trunk. Being new to magic he didn't really understand much of it and still wasn't sure he was ready to believe some of it, especially potions (mix eye of a what and the tongue of that, and some of what and stir backwards, what the actual hell?) but he went ahead and bought a full set of all seven years Hogwarts books for all subjects including electives, plus the first year mastery levels of each subject that had them...just to get the library up to snuff. That set him back another six hundred fifty galleons.

Then he bought some obscure books on rarer subjects at the bookstore in Knockturn Alley. He found a tome on the lost art of wandless magic, a primer on the mind arts, and a rare book on parseltongue. At first Harry didn't believe it himself, a book _written_ in snake language? It turned out that the descriptions and instructions were written in English but charmed so only a parseltongue could read it, and it included charmed images of moving snakes that would recite the actual spells in parseltongue for him. The pages of the book just looked like pictures of snakes and garbled text in the hands of a non parselmouth.

Harry figured that was enough spending for now, he'd used more than half his annual allowance of galleons already when you subtracted Hogwarts tuition. But with that he had private lodging and board for a year.

He spent the rest of the summer reading, practicing, and in his Giles persona wandering around the Alleys and Hogsmeade. From the Boy-Who-Lived books, he found out about his first home and where his parents were buried and visited Godric's Hollow.

About a week into his new life he put back on his scraps and returned to the Dursley's to let them know that the school was going to put him up year round from then on, so they would not need to worry about him anymore. They were glad to be rid of him. He was far more glad to be rid of them.

**Hogwarts Year 1  
><strong>  
>During the train ride he rejected all offers of company and friendship. He didn't believe in it and was even less interested in people who went on about the boy-who-lived this and scars-that when they first met him.<p>

When the sorting hat put him in Slytherin, Harry didn't argue with it. Dumbledore and many others were disappointed. He noticed he already didn't meet some peoples self deluded expectations of him. He thought they could all go Eff themselves.

When he saw Quirrelmort his budding new Occlumency shields kept him from feeling any pains in his scar, so he noticed nothing more strange about the man than anyone else.

In his first class with Snape, he got the whole 'new celebrity' treatment and answered the first two questions correctly. Snape told him to try harder but took no points, not from his own house he wouldn't. Harry felt a light brush against his Occlumency shields but no one got in. He figured it must've been Snape. He needed to keep an eye out for that one.

Draco tried again to make friends with him, but he told him to Eff off and go play circle jerk with his boyfriends. Draco tried to bully him into accepting him as the leader of Slytherin house because of who his Daddy was. Harry said he didn't care who his Daddy was or what mafia he led, just leave him out of it. He was there to do his seven years, graduate, and get the hell out of that backwards nuthouse. Draco just went away in a huff realizing he just couldn't get a rise out of the kid. At least not the kind he wanted. But, he got the point across and Potter more or less said he would stay out of his way, that's all that mattered. 

On Halloween, a Troll somehow got lose in the school and Professor Quirell fainted in the middle of the Great Hall after announcing it. Harry went back to his dorm room as instructed. Later he heard that a Gryffindor girl named Hermione Granger almost got done in by the Troll while she was in the bathroom, except the teachers got there in time to save her.

Beside the regular school work which he was in the top ten of in all his classes, he began struggling with his self identity. He went from an abused muggle boy whose only aspiration was to join the local gang and get up the nerve to kill his uncle-to a magical boy who had maneuvered himself into some personal freedom and most importantly safety from the lunatic asylum he used to live in.

He wasn't sure what his goals should be or what he wanted to do or who he wanted to be when he grew up. He never used to actually think he would live long enough to be grown up. He wasn't lying to Malfoy when he said he planned to do his seven and get out. So far that was the only thing that made sense. So he figured he had seven years to figure it out.

During Christmas someone left him his fathers cloak. Given the message it was certainly one of the faculty. His money was on Dumbledore since he had his vault key too. What other family possessions had this man stolen or kept from him? It was the only gift he got and ironically it was rightfully his to begin with. Harry added that to the list with the vault key, a mystery that still needed to be solved someday.

Unfortunately for Dumbledore, Harry did not use the cloak to explore the castle and find the mirror, nor did he take any interest in Quirrelmort or the stone.

Harry did not bother with Malfoy or Longbottom's rememberall and was not the youngest whatever in a century.

At the end the year Dumbledore had to confront and defeat Voldemort himself, Harry never even knew anything happened.

Throughout the year Dumbledore never even came up with a justifiable reason to meet alone with the boy.

Harry enjoyed his summer, going around as Giles Kerr, out to the movies and other ordinary fun stuff he never got to do before and continued to study and practice magic. 

During the school year during breaks Harry spent some personal time learning several parseltongue spells, one good thing was that all of them were wandless. So, learning how to cast those verbally with no wand movements helped him pick up wandless magic faster in general, even for ordinary spells since he was learning and getting used to the feeling of connecting with his magic without the external focus.

He nailed his Occlumency with a parseltongue spell that he found that locked his mind utterly to anyone who did not know his parseltongue password. That said it also prevented Imperious because that spell could not find its target, his mind.

Another useful spell allowed him to mask his unique magical signature to prevent scrying and tracking, even from blood wards (or Phoenixes). He implemented those two immediately since they were so useful to his hiding. With those now he could walk right by Dumbledore while he was actively using magic to find him and he would never know Harry was right there.

The other two he still needed to practice since they took more focus and concentration, was a parseltongue summoning spell which really teleported an object directly to him, an object didn't have to break free of its confines, find open doors or windows and fly from point one to the other like an Accio required.

And the other was his first look at battle magic, a formidable shield spell, more powerful than Protego for stopping foreign magic, but did not rebound a spell, instead it stripped it of its component properties and absorbed part of the raw magic, strengthening the shield. The only thing he couldn't stop directly at that point was a Killing Curse. But he knew from his reading that it could be blocked with solid objects to take the hit for him, so he vowed to learn more about transfiguration and conjuration to aid in that.

Other than that he only learned the normal first year curriculum so far, and he had been practicing those spells wandlessly. The book he got on wandless magic had advice for any student with this aptitude which was to practice all new spells learned in school each year wandlessly during the summer. Therefore by the time he graduated he would be able to perform all the spells he learned either way he wanted.

Around mid summer the blood wards on Privet drive had weakened enough to raise the alarm, which caused a nosy self-possessed and conceited Headmaster chock-full of secret agendas to go investigate the Dursley's.

Dumbledore found Harry was no longer living there of course, learned about the lie that Harry told them about being put up by the school year round and that he had not been there at all since Hagrid took him, except about a week before school started to tell them that lie.

He informed them that Harry was lying and told them that when he found him, he would bring him home.

They told him they would rather he didn't, to keep him or give him to someone else if he wanted. They had gotten quite used to their normal life without the brat and would be quite happy if he never returned.

He impressed upon them that Harry's presence protected both Harry and their family from Voldemort's old followers who would certainly come after them if they knew where they lived. Dumbledore's blood ward protections ensured that as long as Harry was there and called it home, all the occupants of the house were safe.

No one mentioned the point that if Harry were never there in the first place the Dursley's would never have been in any more danger than any other muggle living in England.

Unknown to Harry at first, a bit of a manhunt was secretly arranged by Dumbledore relying on his closest friends from his old crowd. He wasn't about to alert the Ministry to this issue, certainly not the press. Harry had attended Hogwarts after all and was doing well and behaving himself even if he was aloof, dismissive and a loner. The only thing really wrong was that he wasn't returning to his work release prison as assigned by Dumbledore himself each year. He had nothing he could say against Harry except that he 'ran away from home' and he suspected if his 'home life' were to be inspected that would not serve his master plan or his own career all that well. So he was walking around on eggshells while doing that.

Dumbledore knew that if he didn't get Harry back before end of summer there would not be enough left of his mothers protection to recast the wards. So time was already short.

Harry went blissfully unaware of this fact for several weeks until one Mundungus Fletcher started doing his bit for Dumbledore by sniffing out the underground. Which led him to one of his contacts, Fryer at the Bottomless Flask Inn.

Harry overheard that conversation himself since he had taken to sitting around the lounge area just people watching and listening while sipping butter-beers in his Giles persona. As a young pre-teen, he found he was learning quite a lot about the facts of life just sitting there and observing.

When Dung left, Harry sidled up to the bar speaking to Fryer who said "I guess you heard all that huh?" to which Harry nodded and said "yeah."

"Well good then I don't have to repeat it." said Fryer with a grin. "Watch yourself."

Harry didn't know what to make of it. He had no idea why the Headmaster of his school would be tracking his whereabouts. It was also sad to know that if Dumbledore _were_ responsible for him and he'd really gone missing that he'd be dumb enough to spread the word about that in the underground himself. Oh well, he had already concluded that most wizards and witches were idiots and sheep.

Harry watched his back more than usual.

Dumbledore's Phoenix had no luck finding Harry, which spooked him badly.

Harry received his Hogwarts letter for start of term, with a portkey and tracking charm stripped from the letter by the owl post office. He spent most of his time chilling in the muggle world after that.

He visited Gringotts and took out his normal annual allotment of ten thousand galleons which, he divided same as the previous year. After allowing for Hogwarts, paying Fryer, and topping off his school supplies, and making another deposit at Barclays, he now had seven thousand five hundred and five galleons and nine thousand pounds freed from lock-up as he had come to think of the fact that he could only touch so much of his own money each year. He was just optimizing how much of it he could get and keep out of other peoples hands and into his own until he could access all of it. 


	2. Chapter 2 - Year 2

**DISCLAIMER: ** I do not own Harry Potter, or anything you may find in my story that in any way resembles a character, story, or plot that is owned by another person.

**Harry Potter and Yet Another Version of His Hogwarts Years**

**Hogwarts Year 2**

On September First Harry found himself unable to cross through platform Nine and Three Quarter. It was very annoying since he stood there and watched others go through before him and after him. Somehow it just wasn't letting him through. He idly wondered if this was some trick of Dumbledore to draw him out. But whatever.

He just said Eff it and took the Knight Bus to the Leaky Cauldron then floo'd to the Three Broomsticks at Hogsmeade and walked to the train station, where he waited five more hours for the stupid train to catch up to him. Staying in disguise he chilled at the Hogsmeade stores while he waited. When he finally saw the train pull up he went around a building and removed his glamour rings and unshrunk his trunk.

When the train start letting people off to go to the carriages he just merged in with the crowd and joined in.

Several students and the prefects had reported they did not see Harry on the train, but there he was never the less.

When approached by the Head Boy about where he'd been, he told them mostly the truth. They would report that to the Headmaster and let him deal with it.

So it was that Harry joined his classmates as anticipated for his second year, but unlike last year, Dumbledore and Snape summoned him to his office to ask where he'd been and asked why he lied to his relatives.

Not wanting to be expelled because he did lie about Hogwarts in that story, he decided to play nice about it, but only tell them things to his advantage.

Harry told them that since he found out about being a wizard and had a lot of money left by his parents that he was never going to live with those relatives again. He briefly told some of how he was abused, but not all of it. He thought there were some parts he intended to take to his grave-not before he saw Vernon to his grave first though.

The Headmaster and Snape paled when they heard the story of his abuse there, but nevertheless Dumbledore wanted him to be made pliant by that household and even though he really couldn't restore the blood wards now, he made a story about them and told him he'd need to go back.

Snape internally had mixed feelings on it all warring internally over his hatred for all things Potter and his life debt to Harry via James, and his loyalty to Lily.

Harry exploded on them about how was it any of their business where he lived when he was not in school. He was just his school Headmaster, not his grandfather or anything. He could always just attend a different school, if there was a problem.

Snape wanted to blast into Potter after his outburst, but he remained uncharacteristically silent while he still pondered things, all other things considered he thought Potter actually had a point. Finally, he spoke up:

"Mr. Potter be that as it may, you are a minor, who just turned twelve I believe. A child your age cannot legally be off on their own." said Snape.

Dumbledore thought Snape was taking his side but really he was just trying to steer the conversation back to where Harry _had been_ all summer, assuming that indeed he could not have been looking after himself all that time.

Harry just firmly but politely, since he didn't want to explode again, said. "Okay, I will go back to the Dursley's this summer and discuss my future with them since they are my official guardians. I still don't think it's a school matter, but I'm sorry for worrying you."

All Dumbledore heard was that Harry agreed to go back to the Dursley's, he didn't really catch the qualifiers in the statement. Snape did catch it but for once kept his mouth closed, wondering what this kid was playing at and thinking he would get to the bottom of it himself. Dumbledore was just hearing what he wanted to hear as usual.

Finally they got to the issue of missing the train and Harry explained that and repeated what he told the Head Boy.

Dumbledore asked how he did get here via that route without being spotted, they'd had people out looking for him.

Harry didn't miss a beat and said, "Why with my invisibility cloak of course."

To which Dumbledore nodded knowingly and said "of course, that explains quite a bit actually."

Snape had been about to ask what he was doing with one of those and was going to confiscate it at least while he was at school, when it appeared Dumbledore seemed to know that the boy had it, so he just gave him a funny look, figuring he would ask him about that in private later.

Dumbledore asked if he used the cloak a lot, following up his suspicions, and Harry said "Yeah, all the time. I'm not about to go around the magical world openly where people can see me, everyone thinks they know me or own me because of this stupid scar. So I like to go unnoticed when out in public." replied Harry.

Dumbledore thought, 'Well there is that at least.' and said, "That is a good policy Mr. Potter. That will help keep you safe as well."

With Dumbledore thinking he already had Potters agreement to return to the Dursley's, the rest was moot since he was safe at school, so he dismissed him.

...

School began without much fanfare and Harry continued to do well in his classes and made more progress with his wandless magic, mind arts, and parseltongue book. He had become adept at the parseltongue summoning and shield spells so now he was looking into more exotic spells that seemed to be really unique to parseltongue casters.

One was a parseltongue's own brand of invisibility, which also made him intangible and he could pass through walls and such, and unlike when using a cloak, it masked any sound he made or scents since he was basically out of phase with the normal dimension.

Another was a parseltongue's own brand of apparation, more like some kind of dimension travel because it was combined with the effects of the invisibility spell. This appeared like it would be very hard to learn without a teacher so he was going slowly. If he attempted to dimension travel without knowing what he was doing he could end up anywhere or nowhere, like the place vanished objects go. The book recommended the user learn normal wizard apparation first, to have a good understanding of the concentration and skill necessary. Harry wasn't sure he would wait that long to try it. But he could wait a while.

Another strange occurrence happened during the year where Harry encountered a House Elf named Dobby who came to warn him to leave the school because he was going to be in great danger that year. He admitted to him that he was the one who closed the portal nine and three quarters, trying to keep him from returning to school. Harry tried to get him to tell him details and why, only managing to figure out that Dobby must work for a bad family who knew something about what was going on but, was unable to say anything due to his enslavement.

Half way through the first term Harry heard that Ron Weasley, Seamus Finnegan, and Draco Malfoy got a week of detentions together. Weasley and Finnegan for trying to help Hagrid sneak a baby dragon off the school grounds and Malfoy for being out of bounds after curfew to catch them at it.

Then one day people started getting petrified by some unknown assailant, claiming to be the 'Heir of Slytherin.'

Since the boy-who-lived ended up in Slytherin, some people were already throwing furtive glances his way and murmuring.

After he revealed his parseltongue ability during a demonstration dual with Draco Malfoy that was staged by the idiot, Twinkletoes Lockhart, the whole school was certain that he was the Heir of Slytherin. He just shook his head and mumbled "What a bunch of idiots," every time someone mentioned that in earshot of him.

Then finally the day came when the 'Heir' wrote in chicken blood on the wall that "her skeleton will lie in the chamber forever" and Snape of all people came to him to ask if Harry truly knew nothing about it.

Harry was tired of everyone blaming him so he said no, but he offered that he might be able to help. Since he was a parseltongue he had lately been hearing voices coming from the walls that he normally associated with the sound of a snake talking to him, but he wasn't about to start digging through walls to see if he could find the source of it. And he didn't think it would be a good idea to just go reporting that he was hearing voices in the walls.

But, lately he had been thinking that maybe there was a big snake in the pipes or something and if that thing were a basilisk and if the people petrified only saw it through a reflection like the water on the floor, or the camera in Creevey's case-yes, these facts got all around the school in the rumor mill-then, maybe he could track it down and figure out how to get to it.

"Alright Potter, let's see what you can do. Where did you last hear this voice?" asked Snape.

"In the hallway across from the Girls bathroom on the second floor." replied Harry.

"Let's go then. Let's see if you can track this down, if it is a basilisk. If it is, and we find it, stay behind me Potter and don't look at it. I will conjure a rooster to crow which will kill it." said Snape.

"Yes, sir." replied Harry.

...

As they entered the hallway they also found two boys sneaking around looking like they were trying to follow some clues to it as well, the punk Ron Weasley and his friend Seamus Finnegan-with Twinkletoes Lockhart in tow looking like he'd rather be somewhere else.

Snape saw them and said:

"What are you two doing here? Professor, are they with you?" asked Snape.

Lockhart just mumbled, "Ah not really, well yes, these boys think they might know where the Heir of Slytherin is hiding and they want me to help them go after Miss Weasley, who was the one that was taken." he managed to stumble out.

"Why do you boys think you know what's going on? Weasley, answer me!" barked Snape.

"They flee from the spiders sir, just like Hagrid said, see? and look, we got this note from Hermione's hand that she was holding when she was petrified, it said 'basilisk', we figured she thought it was a basilisk but then got caught before she could tell anyone." said Ron.

Snape glanced over to Potter and nodded.

"Hmm, you might have something there. Potter was just telling me a similar idea." said Snape.

"Gilderoy, why don't you take these boys back to their dorms and tell Minerva to contact Albus to see if she can get him back to the school and let him know that Potter and I are going to search for this thing, possibly a basilisk, starting with this bathroom here where everything seems to be pointing to or from." said Snape.

"Why does Potter get to go?! He's a bloody snake. Everyone says it's him that's done it anyway. I want to go, its my sister that's trapped in there." stormed Ron.

"Silence!" yelled Snape.

"Weasley, that was not a request, now the lot of you go. Gilderoy, if you would please...and remember to ask Minerva to inform the Headmaster." said Snape.

"Right, come along boys. It looks like Professor Snape has this well in hand with Potter there, if anyone can deal with a snake it would be Potter, eh. C'mon." said Lockhart as he led the boys away with Weasley grumbling the entire time.

"Okay Potter, let's do this." said Snape.

"Do you hear any snakes now?" he continued.

"No, but we should check inside the bathroom anyway." replied Harry.

...

They entered the bathroom and Moaning Myrtle immediately began to shriek and cause mayhem. Until she saw Snape of course, then she just let out a little -eep- and dove into the toilet and disappeared.

"Well, that was unusual." said Harry.

Harry walked around the perimeter of the bathroom looking for clues and listening intently. When he got back to the large center sink console and inspected it, he saw that one of the pipes had some snakes on it, unlike any of the other pipes.

"Professor, what do you make of this?" said Harry, showing Snape the pipes with the snakes.

"That could be a clue Potter, if we're onto anything here at all. I don't know how that helps us though." replied Snape.

"Let me try something." replied Harry, then he bent down closer to the snakes and hissed "_Open_" in parseltongue.

The sinks started to move around and fold in and an entrance of sorts began to appear.

"Well, we found something sir." said Harry.

"Indeed Potter. I'm thinking you might actually be on to something." said Snape, having a difficult time admitting it.

"It's just a big pipe. I hope we're not supposed to just slide down it or something." said Snape.

"Let me try something else, sir." replied Harry.

And Harry hissed "_Stairs_." and stairs appeared.

Snape just glanced at Harry with a raised eyebrow.

"Alright Potter, follow me. Keep your wand at the ready and be quiet." said Snape.

Then Snape went to walk down the steps, which were very wet and he slipped and fell and bounced hard down fifty feet of stairs.

Harry was much more careful following him down and made it down without incident to find Snape mangled at the bottom of the stairs with a broken wand and clearly unconscious. Harry felt for a pulse and their was one. Harry actually hadn't learned any healing magic or the Enervate spell yet. So, he had no immediate ideas that could would anything except maybe hurt him more. So, Harry figured there was nothing he could do for Snape just then, so he just pressed on ahead to see if he could find the girl. If Dumbledore did follow them down there, he could help him.

...

Harry entered the main chamber to see little Ginny Weasley laying on the floor with a black book in her hands. Just past her another fifteen feet away stood a young man that looked like an upperclassman. He wasn't expecting to see a person there.

"Who are you?" Harry asked.

"Are you the Heir of Slytherin then?" he continued.

"Indeed I am Mr. Potter. And I have been waiting for you..."

_The initial confrontation went the same way as in the books therefore I will not repeat it here._

Until Tom tried to cast a spell at Harry and he _hissed_ the command word to activate the Parselshield.

Riddle's spell was stopped and absorbed by the shield. Riddle was so startled that Harry new a Parselshield spell and could speak it that Harry managed to disarm Riddle of Ginny's wand.

Then, Riddle turned to unleash Slytherin's monster. Meanwhile Harry was frantically trying to figure out how he would stop a basilisk. It's great he knew that a roosters crow could kill it, but he didn't know how to conjure a rooster.

As the basilisk began to appear Harry ran for it, trying to keep one step ahead of it, dodging and weaving through the underground pillars trying to avoid it while frantically thinking about what spells he knew that could help him.

Then it hit him, he couldn't think of anything offensive off hand but his Parselinvisibility would protect him from it getting him. So, he _hissed_ the command word to activate his invisibility and he disappeared. Riddle didn't see or hear him perform that spell so he had no idea where Potter went either. He knew that the basilisk lost him because it was then coiling around in the center of the chamber trying to sniff him out but found nothing.

The best plan Harry came up with was in two parts, first while invisible, he went over to Ginny Weasley quickly turned visible again, grabbed her and the book and turned back invisible. In that short time, the snake smelled him and turned toward him which led Riddle to turn too and this time he saw and heard Harry use the Parselinvisibility. "Impossible," Riddle thought. "Even if he was a parselmouth, he was only a second year, how could he know those spells?!" Riddle thought.

Harry invisibly carried her all the way back to where the entrance was and where Snape was still prone on the floor unconscious and resumed visibility, put her and the book down. Then looking at the book, frowned wondering what if anything it might have to do with all of this, he'd seen Riddle making furtive glances at it every so often. There was something important about it. So, he kept the book and turned back invisible and returned to the main chamber, closing the entrance behind him hoping that would protect Ginny and Snape, then stupidly try the second part of his plan.

He knew he needed a weapon and the only way he thought he could hurt the basilisk was if he had a sword, then he could try to get it in the only place it would be vulnerable, right into the roof of its mouth. He was hoping that being invisible he could put himself in the right place at the right time and with the element of surprise get it before it could get him. Beside with Harry's plan, he was basically shoving his arm into its mouth anyway. He had to make sure his one shot was a good one. Somewhere along the way Harry thought he should've been in Gryffindor. Why didn't he just leave and get another (conscious) professor. Because he was used to doing everything himself, he mused.

Anyway, on with the plan. He ran to one side of the chamber to get distance from the basilisk then became visible and used his least adept skill, the Parselsummoning, to summon one of the swords from the suits of armor that decorated the entrance to the Great Hall. He knew those swords were real, he nicked himself on one once being too curious-and thus he knew precisely where it was to teleport it. With a long _hiss_, the sword appeared in his hand and boy was it heavy. Whoa!

He could hear the snake turning toward his direction again and Riddle yelling more orders at it. He turned invisible again and then raced back around to the top of the statue in the main chamber where the basilisk had come from. At that spot that he would have some leverage of height, and when the basilisk came wandering around back to the center like it had been doing whenever he went invisible, he should get an opening as it reared around hissing at empty space looking for it's prey.

Finally, there was the opportunity and Harry used both hands to heft the sword, because it was quite heavy for a twelve year old, became visible and tangible at the same moment he was ramming the tip of the sword into the snakes mouth.

Score. Direct hit, right where he wanted to, that had to have pierced its brain. That had to kill it. Problem was Harry was still holding onto the sword with both hands and the snake rose up with a cry of pain and flopped down to the chamber floor all in one motion dragging Harry with it. All before Harry could think to let go.

As Harry slammed into the head of the snake after it slammed into the floor, one of its fangs lodged itself into his arm. "Oww!" Harry screamed, "the pain..." Harry thought, as his vision started to blur. He was getting light-headed.

Harry wobbled to his feet with the hilt and only half the sword still in his hand. The venom seemed to eat into the middle of the sword and instead of Harry pulling it back out, it broke off half way. Riddle said "It doesn't matter Potter. Your dead already thanks to the basilisk venom and in mere minutes I will have drained enough of dear Ginny's life essence to return to corporal form and with that her death. You've lost, and Lord Voldemort returns!"

At that Harry said, "Oh yeah, you dickhead. Let's see how you like this." And Harry took the black book he took from Ginny, put it on the floor and stabbed it with the half-eaten sword covered in venom.

"No. Don't!" shouted Riddle. "What are you doing?" And Riddle made to lunge at Harry ad he stabbed it again. Then Riddle screamed and disappeared in a cloud of vapor.

Harry was tired. He was rapidly losing energy and he knew Riddle was right. This was the end for him too. But at least he saved the school and the girl. That's good for something right?

Just as Harry was about to pass-out he heard a thunderous 'boom' and the entrance he had closed with Parseltongue was blown open and in strode Dumbledore, McGonagall, a groggy Snape and an even groggier Ginny Weasley who had woken up.

They saw Harry on the floor with a dead sixty foot basilisk, and a half-eaten sword sticking out of a black book just as he finally passed out hitting the hard ground face first.

Dumbledore and McGonagall hurriedly levitated Harry out of there and to the hospital wing while Snape, a bit more slowly, escorted himself and Miss Weasley there as well.

The hospital wing went from empty and silent to exploding with a cacophony of noise and panic with Harry Potter, possibly already dead being levitated onto one bed, immediately being tended to by Madam Pomfrey, and a crying Ginny Weasley being tended to by Professor Snape, who still needed tending to himself. But, Harry was the priority at that moment.

There was no doubt Harry was suffering from a basilisk bite. The only known cure being Phoenix tears. Dumbledore summoned Fawkes who cried into the open wound. It took a lot of tears, but it slowly started to heal over. It had almost been too late. But Harry was not waking up. Perhaps it was too late after all. Fawkes then perched himself on Harry's chest and cried more tears into his open mouth, until Harry sputtered and coughed.

He was alive.

"It looks like Fawkes sensed that Mr. Potter needed more of a healing boost than normal, I've never seen a Phoenix do that before." said Dumbledore.

Madam Pomfrey, Professors McGonagall and Snape all agreed, no one had ever heard of that. It obviously worked.

"We know that Phoenix Tears are used as ingredients to certain high-end healing and restorative potions, but I know of no case were anyone was given undiluted Phoenix Tears directly like that. I wonder what the side-effects will be? If any?" said Snape.

"Well, you can worry about running experiments on him after he is one hundred percent back to health. Now that we know he is going to survive I must ask you all to leave now and let me attend to his full care, as well as for Miss Weasley." said Madam Pomfrey, shooing them toward the door.

As they were leaving, Dumbledore asked Minerva to floo the Weasley's to let them know that Ginny was safe and that they could come see her as soon as Madam Pomfrey released her, and to let her brothers in the school know as well.

...

Harry slept for two days after he had been deemed okay. His body needed the rest to fully recuperate.

In that time, Ginny was treated for magical exhaustion and released. Other than that nothing appeared to be wrong with her.

Harry had not had a chance to tell his story yet. But they pieced together a great deal of what led up to his part in the events when Ginny with her parents consent agreed to Veritaserum so that everyone knew the truth and Snape told his part for how Harry figured out and found the entrance.

They knew that she was possessed by the diary of Tom Riddle and that had been the object Harry destroyed with the sword. But Snape and Ginny both being unconscious didn't see Harry do anything and Ginny was even confused how she ended up in the entrance locked out with Professor Snape. It had to have been something Harry had done, but no one knew yet.

Ginny was not in any official trouble because she wasn't in control. That was not to say that her parents weren't quite angry with her but, they were more angry with her brothers for the way they treated her all year and ignored the signs of her troubles, which led her to writing and becoming ensorcelled by the diary and then after.

There was only a couple weeks left of classes but Ginny had returned to classes and Harry finally woke up, fully healed and the nurse released him.

Then the Headmaster summoned Harry to his office with Professor Snape and called the Weasley's back because they deserved to hear the story as well.

Harry explained what happened leaving out his Parsel spells and claiming that he'd found the sword just laying in the corner of the chamber as he was running around fleeing from the basilisk. He explained that while he had the snake confused he took an opportunity to quickly carry Ginny to outside the main chamber entrance and close it again hoping to keep her and the Professor safe while he continued to fight with the basilisk. He said he knew that Professor Snape sent Professor Lockhart to get Professor McGonagall to send for Professor Dumbledore, so he thought he would only need to keep the thing busy until they got there. He seemed to be able to stay one step ahead of it because it was so big it had a hard time turning itself completely around in some of the smaller spaces of the chamber while he was running around the place like crazy. At one point he found the sword and that's when he had the idea to stab it in the mouth where he thought he could get it. Unfortunately in the heat of the moment he didn't stop to think he was also sticking his arm in the mouth at the same time. And he thanked them for saving his life.

"That is quite a story Harry. Actually you owe the thanks to Fawkes, my Phoenix friend here. Phoenix Tears have healing powers and are the only known cure for basilisk venom. He came when I called and he cried onto your wound and he even cried into your mouth to give you a direct dose. Something I must say none of us had ever heard of before. So, he must really like you." said Dumbledore.

And before Harry could respond.

Molly Weasley grabbed Harry into a big hug and thanked him over and over for saving her little girl. Likewise Arthur Weasley shook his hand heartily and patted him on the shoulder, saying "Anything you want my boy, anything at all, if its in my power it's yours. I can never repay you enough for what you've given back to us." gushed Arthur.

And before Harry could respond to that.

The door was thrown open and in marched an imperious Lucius Malfoy strutting with his obnoxious pimp cane followed by his house-elf Dobby. Harry immediately recognized Dobby and saw that the little house-elf was giving him an impish little grin, knowing that Harry would then know who was involved in the conspiracy.

After Malfoy interrupted everything with his bloviating and Arthur Weasley almost came to blows with him in the middle of Dumbledore's office; he stormed back out with Dobby in tow. Harry, recognizing an opportunity, asked the Professor if he could borrow the remains of the black book that was the diary. The Professor just nodded yes, Harry grabbed it, ran out the door and just outside the office took off a sock and put it in the pages of the book and tossed it to Malfoy saying "don't forget this," and he went on to accuse him of planting the diary on Ginny somehow and causing all this mess, Malfoy replied "why don't you _prove_ it." Harry knew that he could not, it was just a hunch after all, but the point was to get him to toss the book to Dobby anyway, not to actually prove anything.

The bait was taken and Malfoy tossed the book to Dobby, Harry then whispered and gestured for him to open it. Dobby exclaimed "Master has given Dobby clothes. Dobby is freeeee."

Malfoy sputtered, "I did no such thing," and turned around to see Dobby standing there with a sock sticking out of the book and Harry showing off his sockless leg.

Malfoy tried to curse Harry for losing him his house-elf when Dobby jumped in front of him and hexed Malfoy twenty feet down the hall, threatening Malfoy that he should not try to harm Harry Potter again.

Lucius Malfoy stormed out and Dobby squealed with delight that his idol Harry Potter got him freed and he swore his undying loyalty to him. Harry just said, "Dobby, keep it a secret for now, but if you want to hang out with me and help me out with some stuff, just go wait in my dorm, but stay invisible so nobody knows what's going on Okay?"

Dobby nodded eagerly, very excited that Harry Potter wanted him to stick around, said he would do that very thing, handed Harry his book back, but kept the sock, and popped away.

Harry returned to Dumbledore's office and handed him back the book.

"Thank you sir," said Harry. "I had to take care of some quick business."

"Certainly dear boy, would you mind clueing us in to what that was all about?" asked Dumbledore.

Harry told him everything except the last part at the end where he told Dobby to wait for him secretly in his dorm room.

Arthur was laughing his head off and Molly was grinning a bit too. "I'm glad a small amount of justice was done Harry. Thank you. Fact is if I could prove it I would have him arrested for that book, but nothing would come of it. I'm glad he lost something over it and now he knows we know even if we can't prove it. That's something too." said Arthur.

"Yes, sir. I just wanted to try to help Dobby." and he proceeded to explain although only Dumbledore got the reference initially, that it was Dobby who blocked him and only him from platform nine and three quarters at the beginning of the year, Dobby admitted it to him earlier in the year when he tried to talk him into leaving. He explained that Dobby was aware of the conspiracy and tried to protect Harry, believing he was the ultimate target. But could only do or say so much because of his house-elf bond. So, he felt he owed him.

"Well, I guess that settles all that then. Thanks again Harry, we should be on our way." said Arthur.

"You're welcome sir. I'm glad I could help. I'm glad Ginny is okay and didn't get in trouble." replied Harry, inwardly thinking it feels good to do nice things for people. Maybe not everyone is bad. His heart started to thaw a little bit that day. Not for everyone or anyone he perceived done him wrong, but for others, people he didn't know yet. He could start to give some of them a chance. While continuing to be on the look out for scum like Malfoy.

"Thank you Harry. You are dismissed. Oh and you are excused from classes for today, please stop by the girls bathroom on the second floor and re-seal the entrance to the chamber, it is my understanding you are the only one who can. We have the bathroom door closed with a password right now to keep the other students out, the password is Snickers." said Dumbledore.

On his way out, "Sorry Fawkes, with all the interruptions, I didn't get a chance... Thank You, I owe you my life. You are an amazing bird." Harry said as he walked over to Fawkes on his perch and patted his head and rubbed his feathers.

Fawkes responded with a warbling note and a squawk and just stood their preening his feathers like a proud little peacock.

...

Back in his dorm room Dobby appeared after Harry entered and jumped up and down begging Harry to take him as his own personal elf.

"Dobby, I thought you wanted to be free? It sounded like you were very happy about that." said Harry.

"I am very happy to be free of the mean, dirty, nasty Malfoys sir. They hurt Dobby and made me punish myself. But, I's wants to be bonded to the greatest wizard ever, Harry Potter sir!"

"Alright Dobby, tell me what this bonding means to both of us and how to do it."

A few minutes later Dobby was bonded to Harry. He liked the fact that Dobby could not reveal his secrets. He saw first hand how difficult it was for Dobby with the Malfoys even though he really wanted to. He ordered him not to punish himself and if there was any problem like that to talk to Harry first.

Then, Harry asked Dobby to stay with him always when he isn't sent out on an assignment but remain invisible so that he would have him nearby if he ever needed him. It was nice to have his own personal little body-guard too. That would make his brief visit to the Dursley's this summer bearable and possibly even fun. Then he led him to the Chamber of Secrets. Before he sealed it back up like Dumbledore asked, he wanted to get Dobby's help to render that giant basilisk down to useful parts. He knew from his reading that all of its body was valuable for one thing or another and that the Goblins would pay dearly for its meat.

Now that Dobby had been to the chamber himself, he could pop in and out whenever he wanted, and Harry learned he could pop Harry anywhere he wanted to go to, including the chamber. Because wizard wards did not prevent his way of traveling. Harry decided then, that he would also use the chamber as his personal sanctuary within the school. No one would ever know unless he or Dobby brought them there themselves.

So, Harry left Dobby to the task of rendering the basilisk and then cleaning the chamber, sealed it as requested and returned to his dorm to rest. He was still tired from the ordeal and the morning excitement took a lot more out of him than it normally would.

The next day Harry returned to classes and that evening was visited by Dobby who was excited to report he was finished rendering the basilisk and cleaning the chamber. Harry was initially worried that his dorm mates would see and hear him, especially Draco who he had the misfortune of sharing a room with. But Dobby explained that he could choose who sees and hears him and who doesn't. Harry whispered to Dobby that elves are amazing, which only made Dobby more excited.

At the end of the school year Harry didn't return on the train, Dumbledore personally escorted him back to the Dursley's to make sure he made it there this time and to make a show of resetting the blood wards. Which he knew would not take, but he wanted all occupants to believe they did.

So, Harry arrived with Dumbledore on the Dursley's doorstep looking like your usual wizard boy coming home from school with his trunk in one hand and his cage with his owl Hedwig in the other.

"Oh, its you lot." said Petunia, answering the door. "Well come in then, we don't want the neighbors to see the freak show."

"Madam, I believe that kind of language is uncalled for especially in front of young Harry here. Now remember Harry, you are safest here, so stay here this summer and don't wander off okay?"

Harry just shrugged non-committaly and didn't say a word. He kept his mouth shut. He knew all he promised was to discuss the matter with his relatives.

Dumbledore made a show of casting some spells to reset the wards. In fact all he did was try several times to place tracking charms on Harry which would not take for some reason. He didn't voice his concern out loud because he didn't want him to know he was trying in the first place. Instead he cast an ordinary ward on the house that would let him know if any death eaters or Voldemort came here, to alert him immediately. Figuring that would have to do.

Dumbledore gave them some words of encouragement to treat the boy well, blah, blah, blah. Both Harry and the Dursley's knew they would ignore him. So, they both waited for Dumbledore to leave.

"Well then boy!" Vernon Dursley said, cracking his knuckles.

"You think that you're going to get away with just lying to us like that and coming back here like nothing happened?!" he continued.

Petunia just stood there with a smirk on her face thinking the boy was really gonna get it that time. Dudley stood there mimicking his fathers gestures, making fists and trying to crack his knuckles.

Then Harry said, "Dobby if you would please."

And then suddenly all three Dursley's found an invisible force pushing them to the living room and into seats and then they couldn't move. "You can't use your freaky powers outside of school boy, I know. They will expel you." said Petunia.

"Alright Dursley's listen up. There is a new sheriff in town. Dobby you can show yourself." said Harry.

Dobby appeared out of thin air standing next to Harry and the Dursley's all gasped. "What is that creature?" exclaimed Petunia.

"Just shut up and listen. I'm only going to explain what I feel like explaining." said Harry.

"First, it's like that big oaf Hagrid said when he first came to get me. It turns out that I am in fact a 'thumping good wizard.' I've learned quite a lot and made a couple of important friends as well." continued Harry.

"Such as Dobby here who is my new loyal friend, who can perform all the magic he wants and no one is monitoring him. He only lets his magic be detected when he wants it to be." continued Harry.

"As for me, normally you'd be right. But, I've come in to some good luck. It turns out I have some powers even most wizards don't have. Powers that they can't monitor and track because I don't need a wand to use them." continued Harry.

"And then there is the fact that I have a second wand that they don't know about. One that has no tracking on it whatsoever." continued Harry.

"So, now that we've established that me and my friend here can use all the magic we want and no one would be the wiser, you would be wise to begin re-assessing your attitude." continued Harry.

"First, and this will make you happy. I have no intention of living here any more than I did when I left the first time. I only let that Dumbledore asshole believe what he wanted to get him off my back. I have a safe place to live and I don't want or need any of you or him for that matter." continued Harry.

"So, with the idiot Dumbledore pacified, I am going to cast a special charm on all three of you that will prevent you from speaking about any of the secrets I just told you, as well as it will prevent anyone from reading it out of your mind like Dumbledore would do the next time he comes to check on me. If he does." continued Harry.

"Dobby, what about the blood wards he just put back up would they tell him when I'm gone?" asked Harry.

Dobby explained what he sensed from what Dumbledore was doing. "There are no blood wards, he was lying about that. And all the tracking charms he placed failed to take due to your own protections master. The only ward I see is the one he placed that will alert him if any death eaters or you-know-who comes here. So, nothing is tracking you or alerting him if you are really here or not." concluded Dobby.

"Good. I suspected he was lying about the blood wards but you never know. I am still learning about how a lot of that works myself." said Harry.

"So, anyway Dursley's, it's like this. I'm leaving...again. Hurrah for all of us. Someday I might return to pay you back for all the good you've done for me over the years. I'm sure you will look forward to that, especially you Vernon. I may also pop back in from time to time if I find I still need to work to maintain the illusion to the old fart that just left that I'm still here. I suppose you understand by now that it is in both of our interests for him to believe I am still here, correct? You can nod if you agree." continued Harry.

The stunned Dursley's all nodded in agreement, hoping that if they remained silent he would leave without hurting them.

"Good, so if he or one of his friends comes to check on me and I'm not here you will make it seem like I've just gone over to a friends or doing something normal that teenagers do. I might decide to return here from the train each year, then just leave immediately after getting in the house, in case the fool decides to have people follow me. I actually don't know why he thinks it's important that I stay here and I really don't care." continued Harry.

"Now, let's see to those spells." said Harry and all they heard was a bunch of hissing and hand waving in each of their general directions. He used the Parseltongue Occlumency spell to lock their minds to all but those with his Parseltongue password.

"Alright, I'm leaving now and when I go you will be able to move again. Consider yourselves lucky that you are still alive and uninjured, this time. And consider yourselves lucky you got a free charm to protect your mind from being read, and even Dumbledore left you with protection from death eaters. Or at least an alert if they attack, at which time I am sure he will descend on the house like an avenging angel to protect you. You should be happy either way, because I am gone." concluded Harry.

He took Dobby's hand and they popped away with all of Harry's belongings-and reappeared in his room at the Bottomless Flask Inn.

"Thank you Dobby, you were great." said Harry.

"You are most welcome master. I only wish you would have let me iron their ears. Nasty buggers the way they treated you when you grew up there." replied Dobby.

Harry didn't ask Dobby not to call him master. He rather liked having someone call him that. He still treated Dobby nicely otherwise though.

"If you only knew the half of it Dobby. Anyway, let's continue on with our plans. Remember that when I put on my glamour that I'm still Harry on the inside, but call me Giles. And don't forget to glamour yourself too so that no one who does see you with both me and my secret identity can use you to put two and two together." said Harry.

"Yes, master." replied Dobby.

Dobby popped them back to the Chamber of Secrets where they gathered up all the containers of rendered basilisk ingredients. Harry shrunk them and put them in his trunk storage area then took that with him to Gringotts.

Grimtooth told him it was okay to enter Gringotts in his secret identity just that he needed to know they would see through it. Best if he asked for Grimtooth each time or just wait in line at his station if he was manning a teller booth. Less misunderstandings that way. So, that is what he did each time he visited Gringotts.

He already owled ahead to explain the situation with the basilisk and they'd made arrangements through the post. He was just waiting for school to let out to close the deal.

The Goblins set up a separate account for Harry's secret identity under the name of Giles Kerr. So then he would have full access to his new separate vault. He received eight-hundred eighty-thousand galleons for the eleven hundred pounds of basilisk meat. He sold them half of his six hundred sixty square feet of basilisk hide for another one hundred thousand galleons, half of his four gallons of venom for fifty thousand galleons, and half of the teeth for another fifty thousand galleons, for a total of one million eighty-thousand galleons (five point four million pounds).

Harry now planned to have his own wizarding house built for himself and for bringing them this deal, they threw in helping him find the best architects and builders and the promise that when it's done they would put on the best Goblin wards, including unplottable and a Fidelius. He would be truly safe in the new place he built for himself.

That was his big project over the summer. He didn't want to remain in England or Scotland, hoping to get a little further away from Dumbledore's and possibly Riddle's eyes and ears, while staying in the Commonwealth, so he aimed for Ireland.

He found a nice secluded tract of one thousand acres of land on Mount Brandon overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in county Kerry on the outskirts of the city of Brandon. This set him back one million pounds but it was worth it for the seclusion and the view, he thought. There was little low land or plains for farming but most of it was forested, which added to the seclusion and could have value all its own once it is warded properly for magical habitation. The land even had its own giant waterfall emptying into Loch na Lice with a large cave formation on one side of it. Most would see no utility in the land, to him it was beautiful. Most would see no way to construct anything useful here, but he knew that with magic it would be no problem at all. He didn't need roads or even electricity after all. But for the latter he would provide for some of that anyway, with generators and wind power. Wind was something Mount Brandon had plenty of.

As for the building itself. He found after staying at Hogwarts that he rather liked the castle theme, and it would look the part in the location he had in mind. Even muggles who would see it wouldn't question a castle being in a location such as that. Of course to them it would look like a run down ruin of an ancient castle and would have the urge to turn around and walk away, just like Hogwarts, but still.

Harry was quite wealthy but he did not have the money to duplicate something the size of Hogwarts. Fortunately he needed nothing so large as that, and fortunately with happy Goblin construction crews and their magic it was far easier and less costly to build something like that in that location than it would ever be for muggles to do the same.

Nevertheless, the Goblins hit him up for another two million pounds for the construction (four hundred thousand galleons), but it was worth it in his opinion. The excavation itself provided much of the needed structural materials and most of the work was done by magic.

The castle was similar in style to Duart Castle in Scotland, and oriented much the same way by comparison except that the highest point overlooked the Atlantic Ocean. Although Harry's was to scale a bit smaller. Harry decided to name it Potter Castle, even knowing the name would be a giveaway to the wrong people, it is not as though he would be advertising that name or location other than to any people he decided to trust as friends in the future.

Potter Castle would have fifty guest rooms and a separate grand apartment for Harry himself. It had four levels of basement underneath of it, the third lowest he would call the dungeons. Half of it was built with prison cells in mind should he ever find he needed them. This was a castle after all. The other half was the master head end to support all central infrastructure from electricity, to heating, cooling, water, and septic. The lowest level, the fourth was completely sealed with no doors or egress, it was simply his personal vault where he could store valuables and whatever else he wanted to hide. The only way in or out would be a room he dedicated for the purpose with an apparation point warded so that only he or anyone he keyed in could get in. The first two basement floors would just be unfinished space for now until he decided he needed them for something. This castle was obviously more than he personally needed for quite some time. He hoped to grow into it.

There was an interior courtyard that led to the main castle gate for the entrance and egress from his small private stable, for horses he would add in the future. There was another more ornate entrance that he and guests would typically use for casual entry. The upper floors consisted of a large Great Hall for dining, a small ballroom, a number of private offices and conference rooms. And many other rooms left unfinished in the beginning. Unlike your medieval castles this one was run with electric to all rooms as well as central heating and air, but also included the traditional fireplaces and chimney floo's. Since Harry would not need to occupy much of the castle for sometime he only had the Goblins do complete finishing of his private apartment and finishing enough of his central infrastructure to feed that and the main hall's kitchens. He would have them come back and finish the rest later when he needed it. That also helped keep the initial construction price down. He could do other finishing's and furnishings later depending on how he would use certain rooms. That also meant that Dobby would be able to take care of the modest amount of space Harry was actually using without more help in the beginning.

It took him all summer to get just the planning and deciding for all that done, he returned to school for his third year about when the Goblins said they would get started. They said it would be ready for his occupancy by the end of the school year.

Harry pulled his normal annual allotment from his trust vault as well. With his Giles Kerr vault set up, he decided he would consider that his main fund for Potter Castle and would continue to live off of his trust fund resources, keeping that cash handy as his 'petty cash' as he had been.

Not considering the balance of his trust vault that he could not access yet, he currently had in his Giles Kerr accounts four hundred eighty-thousand galleons (two point four million pounds) and in his mokeskin pouch for his petty cash was twelve thousand five hundred galleons and in Barclays another fourteen thousand pounds. With Grimtooth's advice, he deposited two million pounds of his Potter Castle funds into long term jumbo CD's which yielded him ten thousand pounds per month in interest which he had automatically deposited to a castle maintenance fund of the remaining four hundred thousand pounds under a simple interest bearing checking account that would itself grow for a while because castle maintenance wouldn't even cost that much until he started occupying it more long into the future. That account Dobby had access to acquire whatever he needed for the Castle, including food, etc. It was good he had a grown up Goblin like Grimtooth to advise him, he wouldn't have thought of that.

All told, Harry thought he had a good year so far if you didn't count almost dying.


	3. Chapter 3 - Year 3

**DISCLAIMER: ** I do not own Harry Potter, or anything you may find in my story that in any way resembles a character, story, or plot that is owned by another person.

**Harry Potter and Yet Another Version of His Hogwarts Years**

**Hogwarts Year 3**

Harry took the Hogwarts Express to school his third year and was accompanied by an invisible Dobby as usual.

The train had barely gotten moving when he was joined by four redheads: two twins, a baby troll, and his damsel in distress.

"Hello Harry," one of the twins said. "May we join you? We wanted to visit and introduce ourselves and thank you for saving our sweet little Gin-Gin here."

"Sure, c'mon in guys." replied Harry.

Ginny was nervous and shy and blushing but she sat right next to her hero Harry. Next to her was Ron and across from them sat the twins.

"So, you guys are Ginny's brothers then?" asked Harry to the twins. I know Ron of course, but we're not exactly friends." continued Harry.

The statement drew a blush from Ron, probably not for any other reason other than he was commented upon. He didn't want to come visit with his brothers and sister but they insisted they show a unified front like their mum and dad asked them to do. Ron still didn't like Harry, he was a dirty snake who could talk to snakes after all. So, he just sat quietly because he knew the twins would tell on him if he caused trouble.

"Yeah, I'm Fred and this is George." said George.

"No, I'm Fred, and you are George." said Fred.

"Never mind them Harry, just call them Gred and Forge, that's what I do. That'll shut'em up." said Ginny, face blazing.

The twins just gave each other a smirk knowing that Ginny's favorite little joke would get her to open up in front of Harry a bit.

"Ha, ha, ha." laughed Harry. "Okay, so Ginny, how are you feeling? Everything alright since that day?" asked Harry.

"Yeah, thank you Harry. I can never repay you enough for what you did." replied Ginny.

"You're welcome Ginny. I'm glad I was able to help on time. I heard you didn't get into any trouble either, so that's good. What did your mum and dad say about it?" asked Harry.

He thought Ginny was cute, especially when she blushed, and it was the first time he wanted to keep a conversation going with another kid about his age.

"My dad reminded me that he taught me never to talk to something that I didn't know where it's brains are." laughed Ginny.

"Mum was mad more at the boys than me because I had been sad and they were ignoring me which is why I wrote in the book and answered it when it answered me back. Tom acted like such a nice friend in the beginning. I shouldn't have of course but my own brothers wouldn't even talk to me. So, mum laid into them about that." answered Ginny.

"Harry, dad told us about your theory about Mr. Malfoy and the diary. You couldn't have known it of course, but there was a moment in the book store last year before school where our dad and Mr. Malfoy got into an argument because Draco was teasing Ginny and talking down about our family; and a bunch of books spilled into Ginny's own cauldron full of books and supplies. Malfoy took the things that were his, and obviously to us, he must've left that diary there. We agree with you that he staged the whole thing in order to plant that diary on her." said Gred, or was it Forge.

"Yeah, that adds up. The Malfoys are bigots as far as I've been able to tell so far and the rumor is that Mr. Malfoy was a big supporter of Riddle during the war. Being in Slytherin you hear things." said Harry.

"So, Harry." said Ron, speaking for the first time. "Are you saying that even though you are in Slytherin that you don't believe in the same things as Malfoy and their lot do?" asked Ron.

"No Ron, I don't." answered Harry.

"I think the hat put me into Slytherin because I have a lot of ambition and cunning, which are the official traits Slytherin house looks for-despite the reputation it's had since Riddle." continued Harry.

"I don't think everyone in Slytherin is evil. I know they don't all follow Malfoy or their beliefs, but those that don't usually keep their head down and mouth shut because they will be treated like traitors by the nutters." said Harry.

"Most of them are a bunch of stuck up purebloods I'll give you that. And many of their families would vote against reforms that would make life more equal for non purebloods. That still makes them not nice, but that doesn't mean they're evil or dark." said Harry.

"Many of them would do so just because they don't want to lose their privilege. It's more greed than bigotry for some of them. But there are a fair few that are nutters like the Malfoys, who would stoop to the tactics of Riddle to get their way. So, I won't deny there are a lot of them there too." continued Harry.

"Anyway, that's the opinion I've formed of them. I personally don't socialize much, with anybody actually. So, I don't know any of them personally. Draco has tried a couple times to recruit me to his little following but I've told him to Eff off several times and to just stay out of my way. Since last year he doesn't talk to me if he doesn't have to. And the feeling is mutual." concluded Harry.

"Well, I guess you'll be okay then." said Ron.

"Ron, can I be honest with you?" asked Harry, not waiting to hear a reply.

"I don't give a damn what you think of me, anymore than I do what Draco thinks. You think I would want to be your friend now because, I've passed your judgment and I am acceptable? I've never asked or sought your judgment or approval. You've been an ass to me since we started school and all I've done is leave you alone. Let's keep it that way shall we?" replied Harry.

Which caused Ron to leave the compartment in a huff, slamming the door.

"Sorry guys and Ginny, that doesn't go for you three. You've done nothing to me or said anything to me that makes me feel that way about you all. If you can live with me ignoring your brother we can be friends if you want. I just don't forgive or give anyone my trust very easily." said Harry.

"We can live with that Harry." said one of the twins. "Ron is a loud mouth and a hot head and jealous of everyone who has anything. He's really the only one in the family like that. I think you'll find the rest of us are pretty easy going folk. Well, except perfect Percy, but he was born with a stick up his ass and wants to be Minister someday." they continued.

"Well as long as you don't mind me staying away from him too. I don't like government much." said Harry.

"No problem, we're the same. In fact, if you didn't know we have a bit of a reputation as trouble makers in the school. Playing pranks, especially on bully's. Most of them are from your house Harry, sorry." continued the one he thought was Gred.

"Well, I don't mind as long as you don't prank me. You're right, most of the bully's are from Slytherin. It's embarrassing really and I don't like them either. So, count me in if you ever need any help. You know, a man on the inside if you will." replied Harry, with a grin.

"Good man Harry. We like that." said Forge.

"So, what about you Ginny? Are you a prankster too?" asked Harry.

She just shrugged and blushed again. She seemed to lose her courage to speak in front of Harry.

Then the trolley came by and Harry bought sweets and snacks for everyone and they just talked casually the rest of the trip. Ginny joined back in a little bit when things seemed to relax. The twins introduced him to some wizard games, exploding snap was his favorite and Ginny like to play. So, he played with Ginny and the twins played their own game. Sometimes they switched up, so along the trip everyone played with everyone else at least once. Also during the trip the twins and Ginny told him about the trip to Egypt the family got to go on that summer. So Harry learned about their other brothers Bill and Charlie too as they explained what they all did.

Harry might've actually had a genuine smile on his face for the second half of the trip. Laughing and having fun with other kids for the first real time in his life, and he didn't notice. He just knew that he felt good, better than he had in a long time.

Before they got to the train station and were getting ready for the arriving feast, one of the twins handed Harry a letter.

"Sorry Harry, almost forgot to give this to you. Dad asked us to give you this letter. Wouldn't let us read it. Said it was important, something just for you." said Forge.

"Thanks guys." and Harry read the letter.

A couple minutes later...

"It was about Sirius Black escaping from Azkaban. He wanted to warn me not to go looking for Black, no matter what I might hear. Said that the Ministry thinks he might come after me to try to kill me." said Harry.

"Why would I go looking for some nutter escaped from Azkaban that the Ministry thinks wants to kill me?" asked Harry.

"Don't know. There's probably more to the story that he didn't feel safe to say in a letter or maybe he doesn't know." said Gred.

Just then the train slowed down but the twins noticed they weren't quite to the school yet. The train was being searched by Dementors. When they got to Harry's compartment, they had no visible effect on Harry. His parsel magic mind shield kept their effects out entirely, they couldn't reach his mind. As for the twins, they shivered and reported they felt like they would never feel good again. Ginny almost passed out, her lips lost all their color, she was effected far worse. All she could think about was the terror of being in the chamber with Tom and her life-force draining out. The Dementors didn't stay long, they looked in, didn't see Black and left. The Weasley's recovered quickly after, Ginny crying, ran to her brothers who hugged her and warmed her up and gave her a bar of chocolate; and explained to Harry that chocolate is the best thing to quickly calm down the effects of a Dementor.

Elsewhere on the train, a certain Professor and part-time werewolf woke up and cast a Patronus charm to chase away the Dementor that had scared Ron and his brunette classmate Hermione who hated each other, but it was the only compartment he could find quickly, when he stormed out of Harry's.

Soon they arrived at the school.

"Well, I will definitely be watching my back. Thank your Dad for warning me." said Harry.

"Will do Harry. See you around school." said the twins in stereo.

"Bye Ginny. See you around. Hey, if you're feeling sad again or your brothers are picking on you come see me okay?" said Harry, before he could stop himself. Why was he being so friendly and open with this girl. Egad.

"Really Harry? You want to be friends?" asked Ginny, shyly.

"Sure Ginny. As long as you don't mind a friend from Slytherin house like your brother Ron does." Harry replied.

"No Harry, that doesn't matter." and being bolder than she ever felt, gave Harry a quick hug, which made him feel _very_ warm inside. "Bye." she said as she ran off waving goodbye as red as a tomato hardly believing her nerve to hug her hero and secret crush like that. Which left Harry with a _gulp_ in his throat, wondering, "what was that?"

...

The rest of Harry's third year went pretty much as expected with an escaped Sirius still trying to get into Gryffindor tower because he was after the damned rat he saw on the cover of the Prophet.

Harry was banned from attending Hogsmeade even though he threatened a signature out of his Aunt. Because of the Sirius Black issue.

That never stopped Harry before and it wouldn't stop him now. He simply made himself invisible/intangible with his parsel magic and followed the twins on their trip to Hogsmeade. They didn't know he was there of course, he hadn't shared any of his secrets with anyone yet.

During their visit to the Three Broomsticks he overheard the Minister, Professor McGonagall and Madam Rosmerta discussing Sirius Black so he followed them and eavesdropped on their conversation.

It was then that he learned that Sirius Black was his godfather, his fathers best friend, and that he betrayed them and led Riddle right to them. There were no tears. He just grit his teeth and vowed he would kill the man someday. He now understood why Mr. Weasley warned him the way he did. If he had known Black was his godfather before, without knowing the rest of the story, he might've done something rash.

Professor Lupin tried to initiate some kind of relationship with Harry by offering to tell him some memories of his parents. But when Harry found out that he was another one of their best friends and had never checked on him, left him to rot at the Dursley's, Harry just became dismissive and ignored him. Just treated him like any other faculty, doing his work and nothing else for him. In one of Remus' attempts before Harry dismissed him altogether he did learn that his father, Sirius, Peter, were unregistered animagus and along with Remus were a group of pranksters that they called themselves 'The Marauders' and their Marauder names.

Later during the year Harry and the twins played a couple pranks, one time Ginny joined in. Nothing too serious. The twins showed Harry and Ginny the secret of their success. The Marauders map. This caught Harry's attention, especially the names of the Marauders printed on the front. He told them what Professor Lupin said. Prongs was actually his father.

After that the twins treated Harry more like royalty than they already did and offered to give him the Marauders Map. They said it was rightfully his anyway and they had all the secret passages memorized. He thanked them profusely. Another priceless artifact along with this cloak, that belonged to his father.

Near the end of the school year Harry was sitting outside after dinner just looking at the Marauder's map, marveling at how it could tell him the whereabouts of everyone in the castle and on the grounds, even as far as the shrieking shack. Interesting. He wondered why his father included that on the map.

As he pondered this, he saw a ruckus of people running from the school toward the whomping willow. A big black dog with its teeth firmly sunk into Ron Weasley's trouser legs, dragging him under the tree? followed by that girl, Hermine Granger or something. Their yelling must've attracted one of the professors, because it looked like Professor Lupin went chasing behind him. As Harry glanced at the map for a second he saw the names: Sirius Black, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Peter Pettigrew, and Remus Lupin.

He thought. "What the hell?" He put the map away, turned himself invisible, checked that Dobby was still with him invisibly and went to follow. At that point he could see Professor Snape had chased after them too. So, Harry had to hurry to catch up. "What the hell is going on?" thought Harry.

When Harry got to the base of the stairs under the room they were in he turned himself back to visible because he didn't want anyone finding out that secret, knowing that Dobby would protect him if he needed it. He stormed up the stairs to find Professor Snape with his wand trained on Lupin and Black, snarling about how he got them both this time. While Granger and Weasley and the pet rat he was holding were curled up in another corner of the room.

Lupin was going on about how Weasley's rat had to be Peter Pettigrew because it was missing toe on his front paw. Snape was ranting that he was delusional trying to save his own ass and that of his murdering friend Black.

Harry interrupted with a loud "Ahem."

"Potter, what are you doing here?" asked Snape.

"Sir, I saw all of you run into this place one at a time and I think Professor Lupin might be right. You need to see this." said Harry.

And he showed him the map segment for the shack, he had never deactivated it. All their names were there, including Peter Pettigrew right on top of Ron Weasley.

With Snapes attention diverted, Black made a leap for Snapes wand and the two in his other hand. He didn't successfully grab any wands but he managed to knock down Snape and all the wands went flying.

At this point, the rat realizing that had to be 'the' map, figured his goose was just about cooked and tried to make a break for it. He bit Ron (again) and started for the entrance, unfortunately he had to get past Harry first, and an invisible Dobby.

Harry whispered, "Dobby, if you would please?" and Harry waved his wand in an arc pretending to cast a wordless Immobulis spell and everyone and everything in the room came to a stop except Harry.

That was a trick Harry and Dobby had perfected so that people didn't need to know Dobby was there, but his power to do such a wide ranging immobulis far exceeded Harry's to do this at that point and didn't require any precise wand movements or casting time.

"Everyone calm down. Now, Pettigrew you little rat. You will show yourself and we'll find out the truth." said Harry.

"Now how to find out if you are really an animagus."

Harry touched Professor Snape and gathered up his wand for him.

"Sorry sir. I only know how to immobilize a whole room at a time. I'm sure you can straighten this out. Do you know how to make this rat turn back into Pettigrew?" said Harry.

"I do, Mr. Potter, let us see then." said Snape.

Professor Snape waved his wand at the rat that was floating in mid air still and hit it with a bright blue light. Suddenly the rat transformed into a shaggy short man that also looked like a rat, still floating in the air.

"It appears at least some of this story checks out. We will take all of these to the Headmaster's office, and he will get to the bottom of it. Mr. Potter, I am going to incarcerate all three men then you can drop your spell and we will all, including you two-pointing to Weasley and Granger go directly to the Headmaster's office."

"Yes, sir." replied Harry. The other two were incapable of replying just yet.

Before they did anything else, Snape presented a vial of potion to Lupin and said, "Here take this quickly. I was on my way to give this to you when I spotted this whole thing. It's almost time."

Snape then, put all three men in a combination of petrificus totalus and incarcerous, then levitated them together so he could control marching them up to the castle. They would have to leave by the front door at that point.

Harry dropped the spell and Harry asked Ron and Hermione if they were alright. They grumbled that they were except Ron was complaining that Black almost bit his leg clean off and he needed to go to the hospital wing.

Snape changed his orders and told Granger to escort Weasley to Madam Pomfrey and they were both to stay there until he and the Headmaster came for them after dealing with the rest.

They were quite a sight as they marched toward the castle gates with a Professor, an escaped convict, and an allegedly dead man being levitated in bindings up to the castle. With Harry, Ron, and Hermione following.

Professor Dumbledore placed all three men in a modified petrificus spell which held them in place from the waste down, but they could now talk. While Granger and Weasley continued on to the hospital wing.

"Now what is the meaning of this, what is going on?" said Dumbledore, coming rapidly to his own conclusions but needed to hear it from Professor Snape.

Snape described the scene as he came upon it before Potter arrived then explained Potter's revelations. They would take another look at that interesting map later. It was at least partially obvious what they had in front of them. Black obviously never killed Pettigrew because there the man stood. He doubted Remus had done anything wrong in this but he knew that giving them this much leeway was all Severus could stand and probably only did so for Potter's sake who he now thought of more as one of his own snakes than just a damned Potter.

So, Dumbledore floo'd to Amelia Bones and told her the situation and asked her to come with Veritaserum and a squad of Aurors, so they could get an initial statement from all the adults involved, then he would remand them to her custody. Thankfully she did so without first alerting the pompous ass Minister Fudge, lord knows what he would've done. Amelia came with four Aurors and administered Veritaserum to each men one at a time, including Snape to get his statement on the events.

Pettigrew admitted to being the Potters secret keeper and giving them away to Voldemort and admitted to killing those muggles, cutting off his finger and disappearing into the sewers in his rat animagus form. Black admitted being an unregistered animagus dog and escaping Azkaban to find Pettigrew in response to the picture on the front page of the Prophet that Fudge dropped off to taunt him, the picture that included Ron holding his pet rat that just happened to be Pettigrew.

Lupin only admitted to being a werewolf which actually was already known to the adults in the room, it was news to Harry though, and he told his story how he followed the kids when he saw the animagus Black dragging Weasley to the willow but also recognized Pettigrew as a rat once he got inside with them. They took a statement from Harry but he was not required to be under Veritaserum. They had enough proper statements from the adults involved anyway. They sent one Auror down to the hospital wing to get similar statements from Weasley and Granger.

Amelia released Professor Lupin, but he knew his time was up being a professor when the news got out that he was a werewolf. She took Black and Pettigrew into custody. They still had to officially clear Black but, his case was made even stronger when it was revealed that he'd never even been charged with a crime or given a trial. Heads were sure to roll over that, but then again most people involved are retired or already in demoted jobs, so who knows. In any case, the job still had to be done. Pettigrew would go to maximum security at Azkaban and Black would only go to a Ministry holding cell pending confirmation and official release. He was sure he would get time served for his animagus penalty, but forms had to be followed. Sirius wasn't upset, he knew he was finally going to be free. He looked over at his pup admiring him for what he'd done. He was only thirteen, but he looked like a strong and confident thirteen. He looked forward to having the chance to get to know him when it all blew over.

Amelia left with the Aurors and her two prisoners. Harry was dismissed. Professors Snape and Lupin returned to their duties, with Lupin starting to pack, he knew he wouldn't be there much longer when the news came out.

Ginny came to see Harry and ask for details when she heard from Ron what happened.

"That is crazy Harry. I'm glad you guys caught Pettigrew though and the right guy will be punished now. I'm sorry about your godfather, but now you'll get a chance to know him right?" said Ginny.

"Yeah, I guess so. We'll see if he's even interested. Who knows?" Trying to change the subject he asked, "So is Ron's leg alright then?" asked Harry.

"Yeah, just a small bite really. But he was going on like they were going to have to amputate his leg or something. Him and Granger are becoming 'friends' now (she made the double quotes gesture) because she's going all gooey eyed over him, thinks he's all brave and all for standing up to Sirius Black. I wasn't there but, it didn't sound to me like he did anything but get caught and dragged by him in his dog form. I think he's just mellowing on her because she's the first girl to seem to take an interest in him." answered Ginny.

"Yeah, so are you going to write this summer?" asked Harry.

"Sure Harry, I'd love to, but our owls aren't very good." replied Ginny.

"Don't worry Ginny, c'mon up to the owlery with me and I'll introduce you to my owl Hedwig and she can deliver owls for you too. This way when I send you something she will recognize you and know to wait for you to send something back when you want." said Harry.

"Okay Harry, lead on." and Ginny happily slipped her arm into Harry's, being led to the owlery. She felt like a queen. Harry had no idea, he thought she was just goofing around. Which she was, but still girls have their little fantasy's of knights in shining armor riding on white horses and fancy gentlemen.

...

The rest of the year was somewhat uneventful but they learned that an official trial for Sirius Black, followed by another for Peter Pettigrew that same afternoon would be happening a week after school got out.

Harry asked if his presence would be needed at the trials and Dumbledore said no, they already had all the evidence they needed. Privately, Harry was only checking because he was trying to find out if Dumbledore or anyone else would be coming to look for him at the Dursley's that day meaning to escort him to the trial. Harry was not planning on attending in either identity. If he was he would go as Giles but he knew that no glamour's worked in the trial room.

So, they took the train ride home. The twins and Ginny accompanying Harry again for the ride home. The twins also noticed just how much more chummy and close Ginny had gotten to Harry. They grinned at each other. Blackmail material.

Harry for his part was eager to get home because he knew that Potter Castle was now waiting for him. He'd received an owl from Gringotts that said Grimtooth and some staff would be waiting for him there after he got home...to turn it over to him.

Harry got a hug from Ginny before he left the platform causing them both to blush and the twins to grin again to each other. Then he made a show of taking a taxi home to Privet drive and entering the house with his trunk and owl. Just as planned in case he had a tail.

He ignored the Dursley's, they ignored him and he popped away courtesy of Dobby, to his new castle.

"Wow! This is beautiful!" Harry said as he arrived. "It is better than I imagined it." continued Harry.

Shaking Grimtooth's hand, he said. "Thanks Grimtooth and all of your staff too." Nodding to the other Goblins.

"You're welcome Mr. Potter. Let us take a tour and we will explain everything to you, turn the wards over to you; and set the Fidelius. Who will be your secret keeper by the way?" asked Grimtooth.

"Dobby will be. He's perfect. He can't give away my secrets anyway, now this one will be doubly protected." said Harry.

Said elf turned visible and hugged Harry's leg and thanked him profusely for the amazing trust he placed in him. The Goblins just shook their heads amused at the little elf's antics.

"He is definitely very loyal to you Mr. Potter." said Grimtooth.

"That he is. I am loyal to him too. He is a great friend." replied Harry.

Which made Dobby swell with pride.

"Okay, let's get on with it then." said Harry. Then the Goblins led him and Dobby on the grand tour. Turned over the wards and set the Fidelius which covered the entire one thousand acre estate. "Potter Castle is located on Mount Brandon in County Kerry, Ireland."

After the Goblins left, Harry had Dobby pop him over to see Fryer at the Bottomless Flask Inn to let him know that he won't be needing to stay there anymore. That he had a new permanent home now and to thank him for all his help. He gave Fryer a five hundred galleon tip for being there for him the last three years and keeping his secrets. Fryer was humbled and grateful for the big tip and wished Harry the best of luck and told him to stop by once in awhile to let him know how he was doing.

Harry returned to Potter Castle and finally for the first time really unpacked. The only thing he kept in his mokeskin pouch truly was petty cash. He put the bulk of his personal stash as well as other valuables he still had from the basilisk into his new subterranean vault, to christen it. It was such a tiny pile considering the vast size of the room. So, he vowed he would have to get more cool stuff to store in there.

Harry's new master apartment suite was rather large, beside his own luxurious master room it had ten other stately bedrooms, and an appropriately sized receiving area, kitchen, dining room, living room, recreation room, library, indoor pool, sauna, hot-tub, and study. The central hall ran the entire length of the third and fourth floors of the tallest part of the castle on one whole side of the structure, overlooking the Ocean. It included a large balcony accessible to only his apartment where he could enjoy the Ocean view and entertain if he wanted.

Then it was time to furnish it. A job he began in earnest. He was able to buy many items cash of course and have them delivered to a secure location where he would pick them up, shrink them, and carry them home in his mokeskin pouch. That set him back a small piece of his castle fund, nothing noticeable. He made that much in interest each year. Dobby took the room closest to Harry. He said it was too much but Harry said, "Look at all I have Dobby, and I want to keep you as close to me as possible. Please take it for me? and decorate it anyway you want!" said Harry, and Dobby relented.

A week later Harry got the news that Pettigrew had been given the Dementors Kiss and that Sirius had been freed, with his other infractions considered time served. And Sirius was given one hundred thousand galleons in restitution for each year he was improperly incarcerated. One millions two hundred thousand galleons for twelve years.

Harry sent Sirius an owl and asked if he would like to meet sometime soon. If so, to please keep it between the two of them and to not involve Dumbledore.

Sirius replied that he would like to meet him. Where and when?

Harry wrote back to meet him at the Leaky Cauldron the next day at Noon.

Harry arrived quite early in his Giles persona and waited for a bit to see if Sirius truly did arrive alone. Luckily he did. So, Harry slipped out back and reverted to himself and went in.

"Hello Sirius. It's nice to finally meet you." said Harry.

"Oh you've met me before pup, even before that day at Hogwarts. You were just so little you don't remember."

The two made small talk for awhile and Sirius thanked him for having presence of mind to get Wormtail arrested, he was just going to kill him.

"I see." said Harry. "Then where would that have left you?"

"Well, I suppose I'd still be on the run or dead if they caught me." answered Sirius.

"Alright then. I suppose that would've been twice you had a chance to help raise me like my parents would've wanted. Instead, you'd do the rash and reckless thing both times and leave me alone." replied Harry.

"I don't know what to say pup. I guess you're right." said Sirius.

"Yeah. Okay, well I just wanted to get it straight from you before I made up my mind. I mean I don't know if you had intended now to stand up for me as my godfather and offer me a place to live or not. But, I can tell you from what I know. I'm not interested. You don't know what I've had to do to survive on my own all these years. Lupin was the same way, he wasn't even in prison and never checked on me once in all those years. You'll never know what I lived through. I'm not even interested in telling you. It appears that my father didn't have the best of friends. I will keep taking care of myself." said Harry.

"Harry, it's not like that. Listen." started Sirius.

"No thanks. I'm out of here. Enjoy your life. Congratulations on your freedom. I'm only thirteen but I am more mature than you. Go grow up will you?" concluded Harry, as he stood up and walked right out the door. Sirius couldn't move, his jaw was still dropped looking at Harry's back going out the door. By the time he got up to go after him, he was long gone.

He stopped by the Dursley's to let them know that if Sirius Black showed up there to talk to him, tell him that he's over at a friends and not to try to wait for him. They asked about Black, wasn't he the nutter who escaped from prison that there was a manhunt on for? He explained he was actually innocent, they just found that out and he was released-and that he is Harry's godfather and that he spoke with him and Harry didn't want to have anything more to do with him. But, knowing how all wizards were, he probably wouldn't just take no for an answer.

With that settled (hopefully), he went home to ponder what he wanted to do for the rest of the summer. First thing was to make some progress on some new stuff from his parsel magic book. He had been slacking off on that lately. He had not spent any time learning any offensive magic yet and he still hadn't tried the dimension travel. He put off the dimension travel a little longer. He really didn't want to screw that up. As for offensive magic he found an interesting one that he didn't think there was an equivalent for in normal wand magic, the ability to cast a lightning bolt from his wand or to call down a storm of lightning bolts for an area of effect.

Depending on how much power you had and how much you put into it, it could either stun your targets or fry them to a crisp like real lightning. So, he spent some time practicing that outside.

The other thing he learned from reading the book is that he could talk to all manner of reptilian creatures not just snakes, that included crocodiles, lizards, turtles, and even dragons. The book gave some tips on how to have successful conversations with those creatures, including an explanation that magical creatures that he could speak to would have a tendency to favor him as a friend or ally because of the gift.

They magical ones knew how rare it was and they revered the human who could do so, as long as you didn't abuse the privilege by trying to dominate them. They were intelligent creatures and not easily manipulated. The book made a specific example of how this could be helpful if the practitioner were to run into a runespoor or dragon in the wild.

Back at Lupins, Sirius broke out a bottle of fire whiskey and two glasses and described his brief encounter with Harry and how he stormed out after Sirius admitted he would've been too rash again, to put Harry's interests first over stupid reckless decisions that would get him arrested or killed.

"He's right Remus. I did basically abandon him to the Dursley's and whatever Dumbledore's agenda was and I would have done it again if Harry himself hadn't miraculously stopped me." said Sirius.

"I know. But to be fair, Snape got the drop on both of us before Harry got there. Anyway, I feel the same way about not ever checking on him either. I use the werewolf as an excuse and it is a very valid excuse but there are times I could've found a way around it just to check on him. I'm no better. I could tell that Harry gave me the cold shoulder too during the year when we reached that part in our conversations. I couldn't bring myself to tell him I'm a werewolf. I'm not sure it would've helped my case or hurt it." replied Remus.

"Well, we've really let James and Lily down haven't we?" said Sirius.

"I know that Lily didn't want Harry to ever go to the Dursley's, but even though Harry didn't say anything I'm getting the bad feeling things were very bad for him there. Why else would he be so upset about being left there. I wonder about that." continued Sirius.

"Well, we could go check on him now. See for ourselves." said Remus.

"I suppose so. I get the feeling its too late though. Do you even know why Albus put Harry at the Dursley's?" asked Sirius.

"Nothing specific except that he was able to put in place some kind of extra protection there because of Lily's sacrifice having to do with Petunia being her sister." said Remus.

"I'll bet it was some kind of blood wards." added Remus.

"Merlin, no! That is dark magic, forbidden. Albus of all people should not be doing that sort of thing. If he placed blood wards on that house tied to Harry, it would have slowly kept a drain on his magic while he lived there to maintain them. And since he was a baby too?!" shouted Sirius.

"Even on their best days one was never to do such a thing without the person undergoing it knowing full well what they were doing and giving their consent." continued Sirius.

"Well we don't know if that's what he did. It was just the first thing I could think of that would have anything to do with Petunia being Lily's sister. Maybe we should talk to Albus first and find out." said Remus.

"We can do that. But, we can't let on that Harry met with me. I promised him I wouldn't tell anyone especially Dumbledore. I don't think he trusts Dumbledore. Crap I just realized I broke the promise by telling you too. Ahh. Merlin, I'm a Eff-up." exclaimed Sirius.

"Okay, we'll go to him together but just tell him that I told you all about the conversations I had with Harry earlier in the year and it was the impression we got from that, which had us asking questions about his conditions at the Dursley's and wanting more information on the protections he placed there." said Remus.

"Alright, that will be a plan. We'll start with that. The next time I talk to Harry I want to know more about what has been going on anyway and show him that I've looked into it. That I care." said Sirius.

Remus just nodded in reply and they both finished their fire whiskey.

...

The next day Remus and Sirius floo called Albus to ask if they could come over and speak to him. He said yes, to come right on through the floo now if they had time.

So they had that conversation with Albus and him being the way he was, liked to play his cards close to his chest and only gave out information that he thought showed him in a good light.

He told them he had Arabella Figg, a squib friend of his who lived in that neighborhood keep and eye on him. She was to let him know if anything strange was going on that he needed to intervene. She never reported anything. As for the protections, it was Lily herself who cast the protection on Harry, all he did was re-tie it to Petunia before it waned so that it would continue as long as he lived with her. He avoided mentioning that it was blood wards even though that is what Sirius specifically asked about.

"Well then, do you mind if Remus and I stop by there some time to visit Harry and see how he's doing? Look in on the place a little bit?" asked Sirius.

"Fellows, I know Harry would appreciate your concern, but I've been trying to keep the amount of magical presence down in that neighborhood to reduce the chances any watchers of Voldemort's old supporters might trace a lot of activity there, become too curious and find exactly what we don't want them to ever find." replied Dumbledore.

"That makes sense, but what if we just floo'd over to Arabella's house and had a word with her then? Get it right from the horses mouth so to speak?" said Remus.

Of course that only made sense if you are already inclined to believe every word that came out of Dumbledore's mouth and you believed him to be all-wise and all-knowing.

"Very well. I will floo her now and let her know you will visit sometime for that very reason." said Dumbledore, thinking he managed it to a compromise that would keep them away from the Dursley's for the time being. Of course, he never really bothered to check with Arabella either, he just assumed everything was fine since she never contacted him. He figured that's what they would hear when they got over there.

...

A half hour later Remus and Sirius were sitting in Arabella Figg's living room trying not to step on any cats there were so many of them, and having a cup of tea.

"So, you say that you never see Harry around anymore not really since he started Hogwarts? Just each year when he returns from school but then he seems to just disappear?" asked Sirius, for clarification.

"Have you mentioned that to Dumbledore?" asked Remus.

"Why no. He only told me contact him if something bad was happening that the Dursley's were unable to handle, only things that would need him to intervene." replied Arabella.

"Okay." continued Sirius, rubbing his forehead as he started to get a headache. "What about before school? What can you tell us about Harry's life from the time he arrived until he got his Hogwarts letter. Did you see him around much then?" asked Sirius.

"Oh heavens yes." said Arabella.

"I've seen him go off and return from primary school every day. That seemed to go like clockwork with no problems that I could see. And I often saw Harry playing up at the playground on Wisteria Way and outside helping his Aunt Petunia with the gardening and such. I even baby-sat him a few times. He was always quiet and shy, but well-behaved and good mannered. He seemed like such a good little boy." said Arabella.

"Did he ever tell you about anything about his life, how things were inside the house? Anything about how the Dursley's treated him?" asked Sirius.

"No. Like I said he was very quiet and shy. I'm afraid he didn't feel like he had much in common with a little old spinster lady like me." said Arabella.

"Okay Arabella, thank you for your time and thank you for looking out for Harry over the years." said Sirius, as he made to get up.

"You're very welcome dear. It was my honor." she said, showing them to the floo.

...

Back at Lupins house. "So, what do you make of that Remus?" asked Sirius.

"I think she didn't have a clue what was going on in the house. Only saw the bits she was capable of seeing. Saw and heard nothing she thought was unusual and so never said anything." replied Remus.

"We still don't know if there was anything going on inside the house to merit any concern. But, there is the fact that Harry seems to be missing from there most of the time since he started school and Dumbledore told us about that one year he lied to his relatives about his whereabouts before he returned him there the following summer personally." said Sirius.

"Yeah, there is something strange going on. Harry seemed to be acting strangely and we don't really know why except that it points to him simply not wanting to be at the Dursley's if our suspicions are correct. But I don't know where else to look." said Remus.

"Well I think we need to try to talk to Harry again. And do you realize that we allowed Albus to talk us out of our primary aim to go visit the Dursley's ourselves? It makes me wonder if he is hiding something about that place and reminds me of just how weak willed we have been about this." said Sirius, slamming his fist on the table.

"We need to put Harry first and not give a shit about Albus' opinion or advice or what he thinks is safe or not safe. We trusted him with the safety of Lily and James and look where that got us!" concluded Sirius.

"Alright let me send another owl to Harry and see if I can arrange for him to meet both of us." said Sirius.

Three days later, Harry replied that he would meet with them but someplace more private like the shrieking shack. So, they agreed to a time and place and met him there.

"Hello Harry. I've thought a lot about what you said and I spoke to Remus and he agrees with me that we've been too weak willed putting other interests or concerns ahead of yours when we owe it to Lily and James to look after you first." started Sirius.

"I don't expect you to forgive us all of a sudden but we both hope we can earn that forgiveness someday." continued Sirius.

"We thought about it and we became suspicious that Albus might've been hiding something about your situation and we went to talk to him. Don't worry we didn't mention I had seen you at all, we referred only to conversations you and Remus had earlier in the year in order to give him any context he needed." continued Sirius.

"Okay, go on, I'm listening." said Harry.

"That's all we ask Harry." continued Sirius.

"I have suspicions about this so-called protection he said he put on you at the Dursley's. I didn't know anything about that until I spoke to Remus and he didn't know details. That is one reason I went to see him, to see if I could get him to reveal something." continued Sirius.

"He was cagey about it and did not come right out and admit it, but he did in so many words. I believe he used illegal blood magic to place wards on you and the house for your protection. Now if what he said is true, your mother may have started it by initiating blood wards on you herself to protect you. But we don't have any idea if it's true or not. All I know is he concocted a story meant to sound feasible to most people. But I'm still not convinced." continued Sirius.

"Next, he tried to talk us out of coming to see you directly at the Dursley's to see you ourselves and see your living conditions there. Asking us to go see your neighbor Arabella Figg. Whom I don't know if you were aware Harry, is a squib of Dumbledore's acquaintance that he had supposedly keep an eye out for you all those years. He said and she confirmed that she never once alerted him to any problems." continued Sirius.

"Wait a minute." said Harry. "You mean the crazy old cat lady that baby-sat me a few times and I caught staring at me every so often was a minder set by Dumbledore all this time?" asked Harry.

"Yes, pretty much." answered Sirius.

"Well, fat lot of good that did." Harry mumbled.

Sirius and Remus shared a glance, obviously there is more Harry would like to say.

"Harry," began Remus. "This is why we wanted to see you in person. Because obviously whether Dumbledore intended for you to be well looked after or not, clearly from his side he didn't do enough and it's clear no one knows what life was really like for you in that house. But I know two things Harry. One, your mother never wanted you to go to the Dursley's if anything happened to them, so Dumbledore went against those desires, if he knew about them-that I don't know. And two, is that according to Arabella you are never seen around there anymore since you started Hogwarts, except to arrive back from at the end of the year, but once you step through the doors, no one sees you again for another year." continued Remus.

"So," and Remus pointed to himself and Sirius. "We suspect you aren't living there at all except to put on airs and we'd like to know why and if you need any help, we want to help you. To hell with whatever Dumbledore says he wants." concluded Remus.

"Do you both feel that way then? That you'd want to help me and be on my side no matter what Dumbledore wants?" asked Harry, actually feeling a little warm inside from the unexpected care from the two men.

Both of them seeing a possible break in Harry's armor there fervently shook their head yes and said, "Absolutely," and "Yes, you have my word on it."

"Okay, if you really feel that way and you want to know what I'm keeping secret I will need you both to give me an unbreakable vow of secrecy. If you will do that, I will tell you and show you everything, and on one hand you will be irate and for other things I think you will be amazed. I think I've taken good care of myself." said Harry, with a little pride.

The two men didn't hesitate. Sirius went first with Remus binding the vow to Harry. Followed by Remus, with Sirius bonding the vow to Harry.

"Okay guys. I don't think I could ask for more loyalty than that. You are both forgiven. Now come with me and I will show you something. Dobby!"

Dobby becomes visible and says, "Yes, master Harry."

"I need you to give them the secret to our home and then I want you to pop us all there. Can you do that?" asked Harry.

"Yes master but I should warn you for future reference, four people including myself is the most I can do this way. I don't have enough power for more." Dobby said looking downtrodden.

"Dobby, don't feel sad buddy. I think you are amazing. You are very powerful. I don't know why other wizards don't see the greatness in you elves. But, I do. Never forget it." Harry said to his first best friend.

"Okay, here it is." said Dobby.

"Potter Castle is located on Mount Brandon in County Kerry, Ireland." concluded Dobby.

Then with stupefied looks on both Remus and Sirius faces, one could almost see the words 'Potter Castle' in their eyes, mixed with 'Harry has an elf for his secret keeper?'. Dobby, grabbed each by the hand and Harry put his hand on Dobby's shoulder and he popped them all to the front gates of Harry's castle.

"Whoa!" said Remus.

"Great Merlin!" said Sirius.

"Harry, did Dobby say Potter Castle?" said Remus.

"Since when do the Potter's have a castle?" asked Sirius.

"Will you two stop that you are starting to sound like the twins now." said Harry.

"The twins?" asked Sirius.

"The Weasley twins. Two of my friends from school." answered Harry.

"Oh. Okay, so really what is up with Potter Castle, and did I say Whoa! look at this place it's beautiful." said Sirius.

"No, I don't think you did." Harry said with a grin. "Remus here said Whoa!, you said Great Merlin!." Harry said laughing.

"Well, why don't I take you on a walk around the grounds. As I understand it for a castle this is a rather small estate, only one thousand acres. And then once you've seen it from the outside and all the nice views I'll take you inside." said Harry.

So, as they started walking...

Harry said, "So to answer your first question, the Potters have a castle ever since I had it built last year. I myself only just moved into it the beginning of this summer. It took the Goblins a year to build it for me." started Harry.

"Goblins?"... "You had it built?" sputtered Sirius...

And Harry proceeded to tell them his whole story. He had always wanted to tell someone. There was still one really bad part, the worst part that he wanted to take to his grave but, he told them the rest about how he was treated from the time he can remember at the Dursley's, what his meager life goals were before he turned eleven, and everything he's learned and found out since he learned he was a wizard since then.

To stopping back by the Goblins to ask more questions...and beginning to take control of his life from there. Showed them his secret identity Giles Kerr, and basically explained everything to them, from his time staying at the Bottomless Flask Inn, his parseltongue abilities and the parsel magic he learned so far, and all his adventures in Hogwarts up to the point Sirius became the most recent adventure. By the time it got done, Harry had already shown them half the interior of the castle courtyard and was just leading them into his Great Hall.

"So, there you have it. That has been my life pretty much. As you can see, I don't trust Dumbledore. I don't want him involved in my life and I've done all I can to avoid him while doing my own thing. It hasn't always been easy. I was afraid you guys were going to blow my cover actually. One of the reasons I asked for the vow. So what do you think." concluded Harry.

"That is so much Harry. I really am just heartbroken and want to cry over the childhood you were given and I won't deny a part of me wants to go take a piece out of Dumbledore over that but, to take your advice to heart and your example too from what you've told us. I will play it cool and deal with this the way you think is best. You really have turned out to be an amazing kid, no an amazing young man, Harry. To think that you've done all of this on your own, with your own imagination and your own cunning. I can definitely see the full strength of both James and Lily in you. They would be so proud of you. To answer your question about what do I think? I am stunned. I am equally shocked and dismayed at your childhood as I am amazed and impressed at what you've done on your own." said Sirius.

"I agree with Sirius. I would just sum it up like this. I simply want to be happy for you, seeing what you've done here and are doing. But, I am having a hard time reconciling that with the pain and suffering you've endured to even push you to this. All I can do is say, if you need anything from me at all, any kind of help. I will gladly give it." said Remus.

"Well guys, I appreciate it. I know it seems weird me being only thirteen, almost fourteen and acting this mature and doing all this. But, like you've seen I've had to grow up fast, the hard way." started Harry.

"Thing is I was really mad at both of you seeing how you weren't there to help me when I needed it the most. But, I believe my parents meant as much to you as you say, and I want to have a chance to get to know you guys." began Harry.

"Sirius, at this point in my life I hope you can understand that I don't want any more official adult guardians. I have well and fully run away from that and taken full control of my life, as you've seen and heard. I won't give that control away to anyone now." said Harry.

"But, I know you are still looking for a new permanent home and if you want you can move in here with me and be my crazy uncle and tell me all about my parents. Remus, same goes for you if you don't want to stay where you are. This place has fifty great guest rooms, plus my private apartments have ten more great guest rooms in addition to my master suite. So, you all can have the pick of any of those rooms other than my master suite." said Harry.

"Dobby has the room directly next to mine. I'm all alone here except Dobby and me, and I would like the company-and as I've explained, I can afford it. What do you say to that?" said Harry.

"I'm in Harry. If that's what you want from me. You've got it." said Sirius.

"Me too. Make that two crazy uncles." said Remus.

"Excellent." replied Harry, with a genuine smile.

"I know I gave you both the cold shoulder but, I wanted you to be motivated to go see for yourselves and come to me when you were really ready. Remus, I already knew about your furry problem. It's not that hard to figure out really when you take off sick for the three days around each full moon." said Harry.

"That is great Harry. So then tell us more about those twins who worship the Marauders..." said Sirius.

...

And the rest of the summer went happily ever after with Sirius and Remus each taking the next two rooms next to Dobby in Harry's private apartment and learning their way around the castle. Still trying to let it sink in that Harry 'had' a castle and that he was able to afford it in the first place because he killed a sixty foot basilisk in his second year.

With some people with him now, who 'knew their way around' so to speak, he got out a bit in his Giles Kerr persona. Sirius and Remus took him to Disney World, Las Vegas, and some really cool beaches. It was the first time Harry really had a blast going all out. Of course he didn't participate in any illicit activities that aren't meant for someone of his true age, but that didn't stop him from getting into places with the Marauders and enjoying watching them have a good time.

During the summer, Harry and Ginny did exchange a few owls but Harry realized he couldn't really tell her much of what he was really doing because of all the secrets. Mostly he tried to talk to her about her nightmares and guilt she still carries dealing with the chamber.

As the summer wore down Harry prepared for another year of school. He got another allotment of funds from his trust fund and tossed most of it in the small pile of money growing in his castle vault.

While Harry went back to school, Sirius told him that he would take the time to go check out the ancestral home his parents left him at Grimmauld Place and see about their family house elf. Then he would need to figure out what to do about it all.

Sirius gave Harry a mirror that all three of them had one of so they could get in touch whenever any of them needed; and he told Harry a few other secrets of the Marauders map, such as how to ask it to find an individual and zoom in on them.

They also made plans, that next summer they would begin teaching Harry how to be an animagus and would personally teach him even though it's early, how to apparate-so he could begin to learn his parsel magic dimension travel. All projects for next year.

Until then, Remus and Sirius had Harry's leave and a one hundred thousand pound budget out of the castle funds to do some more finishing around the castle, get some more furniture and what have you. Remus had already broken in his own personal cell at the end of the cell block in the dungeon with a name plate, "Moony" fashioned over it placed by Sirius. That is where Remus went to deal with his furry little problem each month.


	4. Chapter 4 - Year 4

**DISCLAIMER: ** I do not own Harry Potter, or anything you may find in my story that in any way resembles a character, story, or plot that is owned by another person.

**Harry Potter and Yet Another Version of His Hogwarts Years**

**Hogwarts Year 4**

Harry didn't have any strange dream visions of Voldemort's activities because his mind was blocked off. That didn't mean that the same events didn't unfold however.

Harry shared a compartment with Ginny on the train ride for his fourth year, the twins begged off and sat with some of their year mates and Quiddich team mates.

That left Harry and Ginny alone for the trip, and they just made small talk. Harry wished he could tell her more about his real life outside of Hogwarts but it was too much of a risk still. Ginny for her part didn't realize she was missing anything important so never brought it up.

They spent most of the time playing exploding snap and the big news they talked about was Sirius Black actually being innocent. She asked him how he felt about it and he just said he was happy, that it would give him a chance to get to know his godfather now. All truth, but no other information. Ginny accepted that answer and moved on to the story about the Quiddich World Cup and the death eater attack, and how afterwards Ron and Hermione got separated in the chaos, Ron lost his wand and was almost falsely arrested for casting the dark mark, when they figured out it was Mr. Crouches elf Winky who'd done it, and that he sacked her on the spot.

This seemed to be the mystery de jour so they spent time trading theories about all that. Harry didn't mention that he purposely didn't go, even though Sirius and Remus did go. They asked him to, but he begged off to keep his cover. It didn't bother him that he didn't get to go, he wasn't really into Quiddich anyway.

Part way into the trip, Ginny took a nap, resting her head on Harry's lap...and soon Harry's head hit the window sill and he was napping too. That is how the twins found them later when they went to check on them. When the whistle blew signaling their imminent arrival at Hogsmeade, the two jumped up and hit their heads together only to groggily open their eyes to find themselves covered with shaving cream... and hearty laughter in stereo that they recognized.

"Fred and George...!" Ginny and Harry both bellowed in stereo... Which made them catch each others eye and blush, which set the twins off again even louder.

"Now, now kids... you can't expect two fine gentlemen such as ourselves to pass up so grand an opportunity as that. And dear Gin, you won't tell on us to mum and dad if you don't want them to learn where your head was resting during your nap." They said as they backed out of the door and ran back to their own compartment.

"Well Gin, we're a fine mess and we need to get ready to arrive in a minute. Here, let me take care of this." said Harry, as he performed two quick wandless scourgify's and they were both spotless... then he let her have first turn at changing into their school robes.

When they were both settled and the train was coming to a full stop Ginny said, "Don't think I didn't notice that wandless magic back there, explain mister."

"Gin, there's not time now. Let it be our little secret okay and I will try to explain sometime later this year, alright?" replied Harry.

"Alright, but I'm going to pester you until you do." said Ginny.

"Far enough, just do it in private please." replied Harry.

As they began to walk off the train in silence, Ginny blushed as she wondered if Harry meant something by that meeting in private comment.

"Is there something wrong Gin?" Harry asked when he noticed her blushing for no apparent reason.

"No Harry, everything's fine." she replied.

Harry shrugged in response and Ginny thought, "boys are clueless." Of course all she heard was, "do it in private." Girls have selective hearing.

Ginny never got the preview from her older brothers about the tournament and therefore neither did Harry, but that didn't mean it didn't try to start off the same way as it had... because it did. 

...

"...and the Fourth? TriWizard champion is... Harry Potter?" said Dumbledore, sounding confused.

"Harry Potter?!" Dumbledore yelled.

"Go on Potter, you cheat." said Draco.

A decidedly non-meek Harry Potter just stood up and walked half way down the aisle with his wand in his hand, raised it high and said loudly, "I Harry James Potter, do swear on my life and magic that I did not enter into this tournament."

By the time Dumbledore realized what Harry was doing it was too late to stop him. A white halo shown from Harry's wand indicating the oath was accepted by magic. Then to the astonishment of all present a yellow glow appeared around Harry and the Goblet, which settled down then, the Goblet started spewing angry red sparks and began shaking. Most people thought it was going to explode, then it settled down and the yellow glow appeared again around Harry, the Goblet, and Mad-Eye Moody.

Immediately the fake Moody recognized what was happening, whilst also Dumbledore and Snape concluded the same thing.

Moody jabbed his wand forward aiming at Harry yelling "Avada..." while Dumbledore wordlessly sent Expelliarmus, and Snape said, "Stupefy."

Moody never got his spell off but everyone heard what he was trying to cast, while his wand sailed into Dumbledore's hand and Moody hit the floor stunned.

Harry cast Lumos too prove to everyone he still had his life and magic.

Barty Crouch Sr., the Sr. Ministry official there said, "Dumbledore, what has happened, what is the meaning of this?!"

Dumbledore asked Minerva to see to the orderly dismissal of the students, and asked Professor Flitwick to see to the other champions and dismiss them telling them they will reconvene and continue this once they have the emergency sorted.

"Professor Snape, levitate Professor Moody to my office, Mr. Potter you will accompany us. Lets' go..." said Dumbledore.

And everyone marched in their given directions.

On the way, Dumbledore told Harry, "that was a very foolish thing to do."

Harry replied that he knew he was in the right, he hadn't done it and really didn't want to be in that tournament.

After they all arrived in the office:

Dumbledore explained that, be that as it may, in this case it was still the magic of the goblet that needed to arbitrate the truth of the two conflicting statements.

"You're lucky that your magic was powerful enough to overcome the confundus that was obviously placed by Professor Moody on the goblet. If not, it would have been your magic vs. the goblets, the loser would've been destroyed, in your case by your own oath." said Dumbledore.

"As it happened, in this case both the goblet and you were both judged blameless by magic-a very rare occurrence. Nevertheless we still need to determine if the goblet still binds you to the tournament." continued Dumbledore.

"How could that be? My oath was proven true!" exclaimed Harry.

"I don't know. That's why we have to check. It pays to be thorough does it not?" replied Dumbledore.

"Mr. Crouch, as a neutral third party, if you please?" asked Dumbledore.

And Crouch made a complicated wand movement at the goblet, and four blue streaks of light came out, three headed through the wall undoubtedly to reach the other three champions, and the other right into Harry's chest.

Harry pitched a fit. "This is obviously a conspiracy and we already know who did it? How can I be right and still be bound to this tournament?" said an exasperated Harry.

It was Mr. Crouch that answered. "It is because the goblet was judged by magic to also be telling the truth. As far as it also knew. It is an extremely ancient and powerful magical artifact, and the only explanation I can surmise is that magic itself would prefer the goblet continue to exist rather than be deemed in error and destroyed by the oath, and since the goblet still holds its power it still binds all contestants to this tournament."

Harry said, "Well if that is so then this must be deemed a dark magic artifact if it can be used to bind someone against their will, something like an imperious curse, only you don't even get a chance to fight it off."

Thinking quickly Harry got another idea. "Headmaster is it true that the goblet is also instructed to not let anyone compete unless they are of age?" asked Harry.

Mr. Crouch threw the spell to check that before Dumbledore could stop him. Being as shrewd as he was he knew where Harry was going with that.

The goblet glowed white in affirmation.

"Indeed it is Mr. Potter." said Mr. Crouch.

Then Harry held his wand up again playing a hunch. "Then, I Harry James Potter accept the decision that I am hereby emancipated and now legally of age as an adult in accordance with the decision of the goblet of fire, the law, and the will of magic, so mote it be." proclaimed Harry.

The goblet and Harry glowed white one more time.

Thank you gentlemen, if I am to be forced to compete in this tournament against my will, at least I have received something valuable in return.

Just as several people were about to respond to that, Moody began convulsing and transformed back into Barth Crouch Jr.

"Well, well, isn't that interesting..." snarked Harry. "Hogwarts is the safest place in magical Britain is it headmaster? If so, then it makes me afraid to step outdoors."

"May I be dismissed? I don't think I need to be part of this." concluded Harry.

Dumbledore quickly becoming unglued at the pace of events, just said "Yes, yes, Mr. Potter we will finish with all this tomorrow."

Harry stepped out and ran straight to his trunk to get parchment to send a letter to the Goblins.

He wrote to Grimtooth and explained the events that just occurred and the oaths and his conclusion that he was legally of age. And requested that if that is legally confirmed, to please immediately open a new family account in his name and transfer all his trust fund assets and any other assets he might have coming to him when he was to come if age, to it.

The next morning, Grimtooth wrote back with confirmation that indeed their books had magically updated themselves to show him as fully emancipated with all rights and duties thereto. The account has been opened and all that he needed to do at his convenience was to come in for an inheritance test.

He wrote back thanking him and asking him to find him the best magical business and intellectual property lawyer they could find... It was time to step up the schedule of some additional plans he had penciled in for the future.

Then he wrote to Sirius and Remus and brought them into the loop. He told them not to worry, he had it handled. But they were more than welcome to come and watch and stand in as his family at the events.

...

At breakfast the school seemed equally divided by people who were still shunning him as a cheater and those who knew he didn't enter himself in the tournament, because they understood what happened. Even Draco understood the truth but he stayed in the torment Potter camp on sheer principal.

As usual, Harry still had the only students he ever counted as friends anyway on his side, Ginny, Fred, and George. The rest could continue to go hang themselves, but it warmed him a little to see half the school believing in him.

After breakfast the champions were convened to finish getting their initial instructions to prepare for the date of the first task.

The three Weasley's vowed to help Harry and so when Dobby recommended the Room of Requirement to train in if he wanted something more interesting than the chamber, which Harry was not about to subject Ginny to. Harry introduced them to Dobby and they began meeting in secret in the Room of Requirement.

The three swore to keep Harry's secrets (just verbally). Harry didn't ask for a magical oath. He decided he would take a chance for the first time and just trust these three who had become his good friends. He asked if he could place a special parsel magic spell on their mind that would keep out any attempts at mind reading. This would protect him and them from someone forcing it from them that way. So he began to share some if his other secrets with them about his parsel magic, his personal wandless training, and brought them up to speed on his being emancipated due to the stupid tournament.

That is when Ginny swore her brothers to secrecy too. Harry she believed would understand for obvious reasons, but she didn't want to be ostracized by the rest of the family for it, and revealed that she could still speak parsel tongue since the Riddle incident. With that admission, Harry swore to teach her everything he learned and would learn about parsel magic, and to share the book with her too. She understood that this would give her unique powers and strength to defend herself, and her brothers were ecstatic to hear that. And more than ever they privately thought if those two didn't belong to end up together, no two people did.

On the day of the weighing of the wands and press interviews, Harry, not being as easily to bully as he might look, avoided being pushed into a closet and said if she wanted an interview it would be in front of witnesses. She actually said never mind then, and the Prophet just ran a fluff piece on the tournament with a photo if the four. The only sensation she caused was her subheading and short piece announcing Harry's emancipation to the world. Harry could only thank Skeeter for that and Dumbledore wanted to kill her.

So, they prepared together with the Weasley trio helping Harry train for the tournament, with Ginny rapidly coming up to speed at least on the practical side of parsel magic, nearly rivaling Harry since she had a good teacher.

Then one day the trio came to him with news from their brother Ron that Hagrid suggested that Harry come visit him that evening for a surprise and to bring his cloak. Thereby he learned of the dragons.

Harry's plan then became, Plan A try talking to the dragon. Plan B turn invisible/intangible if talking didn't work and the dragon tried to eat him. Plan C run away and take a zero for the task.

The day of the task came and Harry learned that all he had to do was get a fake golden egg from the dragons nest, not fight it or all the other crazy things he had been imagining.

And as luck would have it, he got the Hungarian Horntail.

Harry walked slowly toward the dragon with head slightly bowed to show respect, being careful not to approach within the range of the chain she had holding her.

Then he lowered the shield on his mind, raised his head and looked her right in the eyes and started _hissing_...

"_Great Mother, I am sorry for disturbing your peace. I promise I mean no harm to you or your young. These other wizards contrived this stupid tournament and forced me to participate against my will I assure you. I don't know why they decided to involve you and your kin, but if you will look closely they only want us to obtain a fake golden egg that they placed in your nest, among your young. I am expected to retrieve it and return it to them. That is all." Harry said._

_"Please, you can look into my mind and see the truth of my words." Harry concluded._

The dragon snorted some fire and bent her head down closer to Harry's and the whole crowd gasped as one.

She peered into his mind for a moment and saw the truth of his words.

She _hissed_ back to him...

_"Young wizard, your words are true. You are also the only human I have met that can speak our tongue. How is that?"_ _the dragon said._

Harry _hissed_ back an explanation and about the book he learned from. And apologized that most wizards cannot read this book and seemed to have forgotten the ancient ways.

She _hissed_ back.

_"I see. Well, please teach them if you can. We tire of their relentless interference in our lives. We will consider you a friend of the dragons, let me see your left arm." said the dragon.  
><em>  
>Then Harry rolled up his sleeve to present his bare arm...and the crowd gasped again. The dragon breathed a small puff of flame onto Harry's arm which did not hurt at all...and the crowd screamed...<p>

When she finished there was a magnificent living-colored tattoo mark of a young dragon on Harry's forearm.

Then she turned around to look at her nest, found the golden egg, picked it up with one claw and tossed it in his direction, it hit the ground and rolled right to his feet.

_"Thank you great mother, you are very kind." said Harry._

_"You're welcome, and please call me Hesipatah." answered Hesipatah._

_"And you may call me Harry-Harry Potter."_

_"We will remember you Harry Potter, dragon friend, fare well." concluded Hesipatah.  
><em>  
>Then she turned around to go sit on her nest and Harry returned with the golden egg.<p>

"Harry Potter has returned with his golden egg in record time by what appears to have been him _'talking the dragon into it_.' My word, has anyone ever!" said the announcer.

"The judges will now award their scores." continued the announcer.

...

"Harry Potter is in first place with 47 points." concluded the announcer.

Harry met his friends the Weasley trio and was all grins...

"So, everything went perfectly to plan then Harry?" asked George.

"Yeah, and then some." grinned Ginny.

"So, lets see it. We could tell she marked you or something, since you didn't burst into flames, but not what." said Fred.

Harry rolled up his sleeve and they saw the tattoo of a young dragon, no artists drawing could have been better, it was beautiful. If one didn't know better you would swear there was a real two dimensional dragon living on his arm.

-

Later, the Headmaster asked to see him and asked what it was he actually did.

"I thought that none of you, the faculty or any of the other judges were allowed to speak to us participants about the tasks?" replied Harry.

Dumbledore seemed to ponder this longer than necessary and got a sour look on his face and just said, "Very well Mr. Potter, you are correct. You are dismissed." Inwardly thinking "Damn that boy gives me no quarter at all, none."

In a few days they were gathered again to tell them they had to decipher a clue given by the egg, to figure out what their challenge was for the second task coming up in February.

Things seemed to return to normal a bit with Harry ignoring most peoples requests to see his infamous dragon tattoo, and suddenly all the new fan girls he had that all wanted to touch it. "Nutters all of them." he thought.

Then one day they announced there would be a Yule Ball, a tradition of all TriWizard tournaments. Initially Harry had no plans to go because he didn't know how to dance, but a week later Snape of all people came to ask him if he had a date for the ball. When Harry inquired why, Snape told him it was traditional for the champions and their dates to open the ball with the first dance.

Harry just put his head in his hands and groaned.

Snape rightly guessed it was because he didn't know how to dance. He told him that if he could get a date to the ball, he had it on good authority that Professor McGonagall would allow him to attend the dance instruction she was personally giving her Gryffindor's.

Harry wasted no time going up to Ginny during the evening meal and asking her if she would be his date for the ball.

The only answer he got was a squeal that sounded like a yes.

The twins raised their glasses to him showing their appreciation and approval of his choice.

Ron didn't look too happy, then Hermione apparently kicked him under the table. Ron apparently still hadn't gotten over the belief that his baby sister was his personal property.

From then on Ginny offered Harry to sit next to her at the Gryffindor table, which caused some growling from some Lions and some Snakes. That began a new tradition of Harry sitting with Ginny at meals.

A couple other students from both houses complained because he was a snake he should stay with the Slytherin table, but Professor McGonagall clarified that the rules only required students to wear their proper school robes at the evening meal, that table seating is not mandatory except at the opening and leaving feasts, it was just traditional. The twins managed to keep most heat off Harry among the Lions.

Dumbledore didn't interfere because this was the first sign that Harry appeared to be leaning in the direction he wanted, and he didn't think he could pick a better relationship for him if he tried. He thought that perhaps it was time to have a discussion with the Weasley parents.

Ron never got a chance to be his normal surly self given that Harry was a snake and messing around with his little sister because Fred and George had him outnumbered, outgunned and made it plain to him that they supported Harry and Ginny, and they knew that their parents felt the same way.

Everyone who had an ounce of observation skill knew that Harry had no friends in Slytherin anyway because of his status as the Boy-Who-Lived and his dismissal of all things Malfoy lost him points all around, a fact that Harry never lost any sleep over and frankly encouraged.

The night of the ball came and Harry and Ginny both shared their first kiss that night at the end of the last slow dance of the evening, and Ginny even gave the little foot pop to illustrate her appreciation of the event. Ron took Hermione to the Ball, because he'd long ago decided she was his default girlfriend and so did she. Too bad for her that she never developed more self esteem. Krum took some Beauxbatons girl whose name no one remembered, and Cedric took Cho of course.

Ginny was the one to come up with the idea to solve the clue of the egg. She said it sounded like some kind of language that was spoken really fast, too fast for human ears. So, she suggested trying to slow it down or muffle the sound a bit by putting it under water.

They summoned a large tub of water in the Room of Requirement and listened to the clue.

"Well, it looks like I will need to learn to swim by February." said Harry.

"I wonder what I'll have to retrieve?" he continued.

They just focused on Harry's swimming and figuring out how he would breath underwater for up to an hour.

For this one he wrote to Sirius and Remus for advice. Remus knew the answer straight away. Gillyweed. He would get a bunch of it and send him enough to practice with and for the day of the task. And he reminded him that no matter what he did, to not use his parsel lightning spell under water.

Hence with the trios help he practiced swimming in the Black Lake. Thank Merlin for warming charms. They all got a kick out of swimming under the effects of Gillyweed. They even scouted out the location of the Merfolk's village to see it for themselves. They did have one encounter with the nasty Grindylows but, since the kids always stayed together when they swam they made fast work of them with under water Reducto curses. The little toe biters didn't like that very much.

With Crouch Junior gone and given the kiss and Crouch Sr. fired and sent to Azkaban, Voldemort who was now relying on Malfoy, worked on a new plan to get someone loyal to him on the inside to make the cup a portkey in the final task.

During the Christmas break...

Harry went home to Potter Castle. Dumbledore accepted the lie that he was returning to Privet Drive. What an idiot.

He took the opportunity to follow up with the Goblins and visited Gringotts to take his inheritance test.

He learned through a blood test and some other secret ritual known only to the Goblins, that he was set to inherit the remainder of the Potter Family Estate, which included the remnants of the estate of the Peverell's, down through all of the accumulated holdings of the Potters, from Charlus Potter, which Harry's father James had inherited after _his_ fathers death.

James, preferring to live and raise his family in a more humble home with Lily, preserved the family wealth for Harry and their future generations. It turned out that the roughly eight hundred thousand galleons Harry inherited from his trust vault was just the tip of the iceberg. James had only placed ten percent of the Potter fortune in there for Harry's childhood use. The remainder was still in the Family Vault.

Therefore Harry now inherited an additional seven million two hundred thousand galleons; a gallery's worth of magical portraits going all the way back to Ignotus Peverell, who died in Twelve Ninety-One In Godric's Hollow, a large personal library of magical books and scrolls dating back to circa Twelve Hundred; a full set of fine silver and gold dining place settings for twenty-four people; the Potter-Peverell family Grimoire which may only be read by one of Potter blood. It told the family history from the three Peverell brothers descent from the eldest daughter of Ignotus who married a Percival Potter in the late Twelve Hundred's to Charlus, Harry's paternal grandfather and the birth and childhood of James.

It told a truer tale of the three deathly hallows-as artifacts passed down from Merlin himself. The death story was a cover. The Peverell's were not related to Merlin, simply chosen by him to pass down those relics for posterity. The Potter-Peverell Grimoire legend said that only the one who possessed all three hallows and wielded them, may enter Merlins sacred Cave of Secrets...that is also assuming one could find it. He also inherited his parents cottage at Godric's Hollow, where he was born-that was still left in shambles and used as a memorial by the Ministry.

The big shock was when the Goblins told him he was also the heir by conquest of Tom Riddle, aka Voldemort, and through him the Gaunt and Slytherin families, and a second right of inheritance to the Peverell's through the Gaunt's ancestor Cadmus Peverell, who passed the resurrection stone to his descendant's. Along with that came inheritance of a small shack in the woods outside of Little Hangleton.

Additionally, from all of that Harry inherited the hereditary rights to two seats on the Wizengamot for the Potter-Peverell family, and the Slytherin family; as well as a hereditary seat of the Hogwarts Board of Governors, and one quarter ownership of Hogwarts castle and vast grounds. And as the last living descendant of all three Peverell's he was the rightful owner and heir of all three deathly hallows. The Elder Wand was an exception in that he would need to find and defeat its current wielder and defeat him or her in combat to win full control of the wand, but legally it belonged to him, either way.

As soon as Harry learned of his inheritance of the Gaunt's and Slytherin by right of conquest of Riddle, he commissioned the Goblins to send a team to inspect and recover the Gaunt property in Little Hangleton.

They found the run down shack in the woods but most importantly they found the Peverell ring containing the resurrection stone, which had been twice cursed, first with a horcrux, then a dark curse that would poison and kill the wearer after enticing someone to put it on.

The Goblins cleansed the ring and stone of both curses at his request for ten thousand galleons. In so doing they discovered the horcrux was of Tom Riddle aka Voldemort. It was promptly disposed of.

Harry then possessed two of the hallows and he had the ring fully restored and polished. Then knowing what his family invisibility cloak and the Peverell ring really were, he created a place of honor for them in his private vault and sealed them there for their security.

In meeting with Sirius and Remus, they knew they now had a new problem. The revelation that Riddle created Horcrux's...

The ring had been one and now they were beginning to suspect the diary had been one-the Goblins as much as said it must have been after Harry described the circumstances to them, so two? - The questions were: What if he made more? Do his old followers know, were they trying to resurrect him even then?

So they made it a priority to research that and if there were more, to find them all and destroy them or else Harry may never be able to truly live in peace.

In the meantime, since Harry was emancipated and came into his full inheritance, he had the Goblins merge his various accounts in the magical world, including the assets he still had under his secret identity. He kept the existing funds that he had in Barclay's there under the name Giles Kerr, as it was still convenient, and he may wish to use that identity again from time to time. But, now he was free to operate openly in the magical world as himself. Dumbledore be damned.

So, Harry's financial assets now totaled: eight million, four hundred eighty, thousand galleons (forty-two millions, four hundred-thousand pounds) which was in Gringotts, and another two million, three-hundred thousand pounds (four hundred sixty, thousand galleons) in Barclay's.

Harry thought he was happily wealthy before. Now he was rich. He had Sirius and Remus help him decorate a hall in the castle to be a gallery for all his family portraits; and he had Dobby acquire an ornate dining table for twenty-four suitable for their dining room to go with the family set of twenty-four silver and gold place settings. Similarly he had Dobby acquire appropriate shelving for the room he had set aside for the Castle library and populated it with all the family books and scrolls. The room was charmed so that no one but one of Potter blood could remove an item from the room. They placed a large stand in the middle of the library that held the family Potter Grimoire.

It was believed by some that family Grimoire's held special family magic spells and what not. Perhaps some do, but the Potter-Peverell's did not. Instead theirs focused on documenting family history and certain other secrets, like the true story of the hallows. It was family history, which was more precious to Harry than learning new spells anyway. Over the remainder of the holidays he spent a lot of time between reading the Grimoire and talking to his grandfather Charlus and grandmother Dorea's portraits.

It was sad for them to learn the fate of the rest of the family and how Harry had been treated as a little boy, and at first Charlus was none to happy to hear what James had done in terms of liquidating the old ancestral Potter estate.

But, with Harry giving him a tour of Potter Castle, his grandfather was suitably impressed and gave young Harry a "Well done!" and his endorsement and blessings on how he was rebuilding the family estate.

He told him that when he was properly of age, he needed to find a nice fertile woman and give the Potter's a dozen children to rebuild the line. Harry said, "...a dozen is probably pushing it Grandpa, but in principle I agree with you and I will do my best." All in all, Grandfather and Grandmother Potter were very proud of Harry. Especially considering he'd done this on his own merit before he even inherited the bulk of the estate. They couldn't be more proud, and they told him so. Harry was beginning to feel a little bit like he had a family.

...

After everyone returned to Hogwarts for the Holiday's, school simply seemed normal for a couple months until February finally rolled around and it was time for the Second Task. Which of course resulted in Harry rescuing Ginny from the Lake in record time, taking full marks. He never even paid attention to what the other contestants were doing.

...

During the third task, Harry breezed right through it, just by becoming intangible and walking right through the hedge toward the middle of the maze. The maze might've been warded against many types of cheating, but that was one no one could anticipate. Therefore, naturally there was no tie with Diggory and Harry was port keyed to them middle of the graveyard alone.

As soon as Harry tried to get up, Lucius Malfoy bound him with incarcerous to a gravestone then turned around to attend to his master.

Harry whispered the parseltongue invisibility spell and disappeared with the bindings falling lose to the ground.

He wheeled around to another angle to see what Malfoy was doing and saw him preparing to put an ugly part baby part snake looking thing into a large cauldron, and heard the ugly baby tell Malfoy to "hurry, do it now" in a low rasping voice.

At that moment Malfoy took a glance to where he left Harry and gasped, "Master, the boy is gone! He's escaped."

"You fool!" yelled the ugly baby with a wheeze.

"Finddd himmm, it must be tonight." he concluded.

Malfoy meekly said, "Yes, master" and turned to go searching for Harry.

Which left an intangible Harry alone with the homunculus, wondering what the hell it was and why he was brought there.

He knew this wasn't part of the tournament, that ended when he touched the cup. And beside Malfoy wouldn't be involved with that, and calling this thing master. Harry had a very bad feeling that he knew what was going on. Somehow Malfoy was trying to resurrect Voldemort, which meant there was at least one other horcrux keeping him alive, just like they suspected.

Malfoy seemed to be wandering further away, casting detection spells and so far had ignored the portkey.

Harry had another idea, thinking this was another one of his reckless moments that might come back to bite him. But he acted anyway. He turned visible, grabbed the sack with the ugly baby and summoned the portkey to him, disappearing in a flash of light.

Harry reappeared in a heap on the ground with the cup in the same spot he disappeared from minus the maze, and a sack with an ugly baby homunculus.

Sirius, Remus, Fred, George, Ginny, Dumbledore, and others ran toward where Harry reappeared.

With Fudge and his auror escort catching up to Dumbledore, he asked, "What is going on here Dumbledore?"

Harry wondered to himself. "Why does everyone, even the Minister, defer to Dumbledore to know everything?"

So, it was Harry who answered first.

"When I reached the cup, it port keyed me away..." and Harry continued to tell exactly what he saw and heard.

As he talked, the homunculus screeched and said, "Dumbledore... I might have been stopped this time, but I _shall_ rise again..." then a dark cloud departed the homunculus and fled...

Everyone heard, but only Dumbledore, Harry, Sirius, and Remus suspected the truth. Harry kept his tongue since he actually had no proof. Dumbledore said: "Minister, this creature, this thing is a magic construct called a homunculus, that as we can see is dying and decaying even now... now that the evil spirit has fled and stopped possessing it..." he was cut off by Fudge, "And what evil spirit is this Dumbledore?"

"I believe it is obvious, that was the wraith of Lord Voldemort." said Dumbledore.

"Preposterous!" exclaimed Fudge. "It cannot be. He was destroyed."

"And you, Potter... you accuse Lord Malfoy?"

"Uhm, Minister, I don't know what Lord Malfoy was doing there, nor can I prove it was actually him. I only know what I saw... As for that... thing. I don't know what it was, but I heard it talk and saw the dark mist leave it, just like all of you just did. I don't know what's going on anymore than you do. But I _would_ like to know. Barty Crouch Jr., impersonating Professor Moody, entered me in the tournament. Then someone turned the prize into a portkey to take the winner, to this... I want to know _why_ and what is going on!" yelled Harry.

"Not now, Mr. Potter." began Dumbledore. "This is not the time. Too many people. We will take this inside to my office."

"Aurors, gather up that sack and that thing for evidence, and escort Mr. Potter to Dumbledore's office. We will be right behind you after we dismiss the crowd." said Fudge.

...

Later, back in Dumbledore's office, the Aurors took a pensive memory of the events, including Dumbledore's for his unique memory of the Wraith speaking, and the homunculus back to the Ministry for examination.

Dumbledore insisted it was the Wraith of Voldemort, and Harry just shrugged and said. "I don't claim to know either way, but I hope not."

Harry truly didn't know, not anything he could prove. And they still had no clue who charmed the cup into a portkey. Harry wasn't about to add nut-job to the list for his reputation just when he was about to begin several important legal challenges. If that was Voldemort, he failed again anyway didn't he? Harry just thought that he'd had to go on continuing to help Voldemort fail, if he was going to keep dragging him into his stunts.

After the leaving feast, he gave the twins the one thousand galleon prize money toward opening up their joke shop someday.

...

Harry was happy to let Dumbledore take the heat for putting forth theories about Voldemort, while he just acted confused about the whole ordeal. He was focused on his next set of agenda items anyway.

During the summer, Harry had his lawyers file cases to (1) Appeal to the Wizengamot to seat him in the hereditary Potter-Peverell seat and the Slytherin seat by right of conquest; (2) Appeal to the Hogwarts board of governors for the hereditary seat of Slytherin; and (3) to sue the publisher and the anonymous author of the Harry Potter children's books, to cease and desist, publicly print a retraction, remit all profits earned from the sales over the past thirteen years, and for punitive damages.

Therefore, Harry made his own news all summer with his lawsuits and hearings.

Harry invited the Weasley twins, Ginny, and their parents to Potter Castle and gave them the secret of its location so they could floo over and visit when they want, and so the parents would know where their kids are when they do. While they trusted Harry quite a bit, they were happy to know that Sirius and Remus were permanent residents to keep an eye on the kids when they were there.

Sirius and Remus approached Arthur and Molly to help them form their own protective Order to help Harry in their quest to find and destroy all his horcrux's and put a final end to him. They explained theirs and Harry's distrust of Dumbledore and while they were sure _he_ would reform his Order of the Phoenix at some point, but they had no intention of answering his call again.

So they began to form their own Order, with Sirius as it's official head to begin with. Owing to Harry's dragon tattoo given during the TriWizard, they named themselves the Order of the Dragon. Harry finally had a use for his second basement level, and they furnished it to be the headquarters for their new Order.

Presently it was just Sirius, Remus, Arthur, and Molly. The Weasley's were going to ask Bill and Charlie to join instead of answering Dumbledore's call, and Sirius was going to ask his cousin Dora Tonks, who just finished Auror school, for the same. All of the members were given a dragon pendant on a necklace that looked like Harry's tattoo, which could not be removed by anyone but the wearer, and served as an emergency portkey for only the wearer (no hitch hikers) to their headquarters in Potter Castle.

Dumbledore tried to get in touch with Harry to discuss the matters of his various lawsuits with him. For one he wanted to convince him to back down from his Wizengamot and School Board plans because, it would make Harry too visible of a public target.

But he couldn't find Harry when he checked on him at the Dursley's, and discovered he couldn't read their minds at all. Which led him to believe that dark magic was at work. Combined with the events of the past year, this led him to re-start the Order of the Phoenix... its first mission, to search for Harry...again.

Naturally, as planned Remus and Sirius did not answer his call and neither did the Weasley's. 

Over the summer, the two competing Orders were busy getting started up and recruiting to fill their numbers.

The Order of the Phoenix gathered up thirteen members, all from the old crowd. These included Severus Snape, Alastor Moody, Sturgis Podmore, Mundungus Fletcher, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Arabella Figg, Dedalus Diggle, Elphias Doge, Minerva McGonagall, Hestia Jones, Rubeus Hagrid, and Aberforth Dumbledore. 

The Order of the Dragon gathered up eleven official members, with four more soon to commit, two more begging to be allowed to join, and three house elves. These included Harry Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Dora Tonks, Ted Tonks, Andromeda Tonks, Molly Weasley, Arthur Weasley, Charlie Weasley, Bill Weasley, and his new girlfriend Fleur Delacour. The five more who were soon to commit, formed an unofficial Junior Order of the Dragon, who were meant to only help with research and morale support, included Percy Weasley, Fred Weasley, George Weasley, and Lee Jordan. Ginny Weasley and her best friend Luna Lovegood wanted in, but their mother put her foot down, Fred and George were lucky she was allowing them to be considered part of the Junior Order. They also had Harry's two house-elves Dobby and Winky, and Sirius's house-elf Kreacher.

At Sirius's recommendation and encouragement, they changed the official meeting place for the Order of the Dragon from Potter Castle, to the old Black ancestral home, Grimmauld Place, which they placed under Fidelius. Sirius' rationale was that if Harry was lost to the other side then the war was already lost as far as he was concerned. He wanted to keep Potter Castle more secret and more off limits than to have everyone they might accept into the Order of the Dragon to be flowing in and out of Harry's own home. Nobody would live in Grimmauld Place permanently, it would just be their headquarters and safe house for the broader Order.

The Order of the Dragon's first missions were organization, team training, research, and to locate, collect, and destroy any more horcrux's. And finally to keep track of what the Order of the Phoenix got up to and any other intelligence gathering on Death Eater activities or additional efforts from Voldemort attempting to resurrect.

They decided that Dora Tonks would heed the call of the Order of the Phoenix when her mentor Moody were to ask her, to serve as a spy within their order.

Tonks found out that their first mission would be to find  
>Potter so that Dumbledore could talk him into returning to live at the Dursley's and to drop his lawsuits to the Wizengamot and the Board of Governors.<p>

Dora risked blowing her cover when she asked why if this order is about defending against Voldemort, to prevent his return, and to fight him if he does, is all of their first missions regarding finding Harry Potter and talking to him about _his_ personal family business.

Before Dumbledore could respond, Snape snarked "Because girl, we do whatever Albus asks us to do to advance the cause. Just follow orders and don't ask questions."

She responded, "Really? Is that the best you have for a recruitment meeting? Professor Dumbledore, I think you might need a better publicist than Professor Snape there." said Tonks.

Dumbledore answered, "Dear girl, the answer to your question is that it is because Harry is the key to someday permanently defeating Voldemort."

That took several people back. There was mumbling all along the lines of "he is?"

It was Hestia Jones that broke the silence after that who said: "Really Albus? We all believed Mr. Potter destroyed Voldemort when he was a baby up until the story surrounding the aftermath of the third task of the tournament. How do we even know _he_ can come back? And if so how? And why does it continue to have anything to do with Harry Potter?"

Hestia continued: "How do we even know that it was Voldemort that day? Even Potter said he's not sure and he witnessed it?"

"Hestia, I'm sure Harry is just keeping his nose clean on this because, he doesn't have proof and he doesn't know Voldemort and the extremes that he could or would go to, like I do."

"As to _how_ I know, it is an educated calculation on my part, buy you would be right to say I don't have proof either. However, a number of clues add up for me, as well as when the wraith spoke to me just before it fled, He deliberately taunted me. He did everything except declare himself by name." admitted Dumbledore.

"I think they kidnapped Harry to use him in a dark ritual that was meant to resurrect Voldemort. Somehow Harry foiled his plans. But you see, Harry's main importance here is that Voldemort himself won't stop targeting him. So, we need to protect him." said Dumbledore.

"Yes, but you said Potter is the key to _defeating_ him, not just that Voldemort has a strange unhealthy interest in him. How is Harry key to his defeat?" asked Tonks.

Dumbledore sighed. "Alas. That is among the few things I must keep very secret until the time is right."

Dora wanted to ask, "secret from harry too?" but, she knew she risked her cover enough already, so she just nodded.

Sensing that the questions were near an end Dumbledore said. "Good if there are no more questions, lets work on finding Harry or at least getting in touch with him so I can talk to him."


	5. Chapter 5 - Year 5 and Year 6

**DISCLAIMER: ** I do not own Harry Potter, or anything you may find in my story that in any way resembles a character, story, or plot that is owned by another person.

**Harry Potter and Yet Another Version of His Hogwarts Years**

**Hogwarts Year 5**

Harry spent the summer before his fifth year dealing with all the investigations and court cases and staying a step ahead of the Order of the Phoenix. Naturally, they ran into him a time or two when he visited the Ministry on business. But Harry just rebuffed them in public and made sure he wasn't caught in private with any of them.

Dumbledore could only do so much considering Harry hadn't done anything illegal and was becoming more famous in the public eye already for his exploits. Even the Minister was treating him as a neutral at worse, because Harry would not speak out on the Voldemort issue, and Fudge did openly sympathize with him over the circumstances of his participation in the tournament that were beyond dispute.

The resolution of his cases went fairly quickly because the Wizengamot had no other major trials to attend to over the summer. For his two Wizengamot seats and his one Hogwarts seat, he was accepted with the limitation that he had to appoint a proxy to his seats until after he personally graduated Hogwarts with at least three NEWTS. Therefore, he appointed Sirius to his Slytherin proxy and Arthur to his Potter proxy in the Wizengamot and appointed Remus to his Hogwarts Board of Governors proxy.

As for the Potter children's books, He was awarded full cease and desist and full damages including years of back profits and royalties, and a retraction was paid for and printed by Whizz Hard Books, the publisher in question. Harry accepted a compromise settlement, since they didn't have enough cash for the full settlement.

He received one million galleons cash (five million pounds), and two six million galleon (thirty million pound) convertible bonds each with a ten year maturity earning ten percent interest. One of which he donated along with half the cash reward to a trust to start and maintain a magical orphanage, which would be run by Molly Weasley, Andromeda Tonks, and Remus Lupin as Trustees. To be located on new land adjacent and added to the wards of Hogsmeade village.

_Since Harry's life turned in a different direction than what we're used to, there was no attempt on his life by Dementors, nor did he have to attend a trial to defend his right to defend himself._

Harry and his friends started fifth year with no problems. Except that Harry was now more famous than ever, and being fifteen, apparently Teen Witch Weekly decided he was fair game for matchmaking speculation. Which he found very embarrassing. After he got to school, it was worse.

Apparently since Harry's emancipation was well known, as well as his apparent wealth, not merely for the winning of his lawsuits, but the word got out mostly due to Harrys own carelessness during public speaking, that he lived in what is called 'Potter Castle'.

Fortunately that was all anyone knew of it since its was protected by Fidelius and other charms. But Dumbledore knew at least the name of where Harry was living.

As expected, after the opening feast Dumbledore summoned Harry to his office for interrogation.

"Headmaster Dumbledore, I'm sorry but meaning no disrespect I do not understand what my living arrangements outside of school have to do with said school." replied Harry.

"They don't of course Mr. Potter, but I am asking you as 'the leader of the light', to protect you from Lord Voldemort, who as you know has an unhealthy personal interest in you." answered Dumbledore.

"Sir, I don't know what 'leader of the light' even means. Is that an elected position, a hereditary position, or is it a self-proclaimed conceit?" said Harry.

"I wonder how it is that you get any sleep at night, if the lights are always on for you." said Harry. "Or as the leader of light are you still allowed to turn them off from time to time?" continued Harry, pointing out how stupid Dumbledore's self-made title sounded to him.

"However, be all that as it may, I do not require or request your assistance in protecting me. Not only that, but as I am a legal adult and the accepted head of my house, you have nothing to say about that even here at school, other than the same that affects all other students." concluded Harry.

"Mr. Potter, it is your duty to help rid the world of Lord Voldemort. And there is no one better suited to help you prepare for that and to protect you than myself. There are many who consider me to be the greatest wizard of this age, you would do well to show me the same respect and listen to me." thundered Dumbledore, having quite enough of the boy's attitude toward him.

"So, it is a conceit then. Very well, that is the assumption I was under and will therefore continue to operate under that belief. But first, without conceding any point about duties, I thought that I had already vanquished Voldemort when I was 15 months old? I was after all confirmed by magic to be his heir by conquest and have in fact inherited what is left of the Slytherin legacy through him." said Harry.

"Furthermore, I prevented him from returning through his enchanted diary in my second year. I did that sir, without your help and despite your so-called protection. Again last year it is possible I prevented his attempt to return again in that graveyard, without your help, and despite your protection, I ended up in the tournament and in that graveyard in the first place." said Harry.

"In fact, if I didn't have confidence in my being able to protect _myself_, I'd run screaming from this school like a sissy, for fear of all the dangers I keep finding myself in here. So, as this is not school business and this is the Headmasters office not the office of the guy in charge of the lights, may... I... be... excused?..." concluded Harry, showing some righteous anger of his own in retort.

"Not until you at least tell me where you are living and give me access to the place so that I can help protect you there." pressed Dumbledore.

"No." replied Harry.

"What do you mean no Mr. Potter. I've sat and listened to quite enough of your disrespect. Answer the Headmaster now, or face a month of detention." said McGonagall.

"Oh man, unlike others who seem to just not get enough of hearing their own voice, I really don't like repeating myself. Professor McGonagall, I have already answered him. The answer was _No_. Furthermore, again I must ask what does this have to do with school business?" said Harry.

"While you are all thinking about that, I'm going to bed. I have indulged you all quite enough tonight having been summoned here on false pretenses of school business." said Harry as he got up and walked out the door.

"It appears that Mr. Potter has been spending too much time around his lawyers this summer." snarked Snape.

"Indeed." replied McGonagall.

During fifth year Harrys parsel magic skills grew. He no longer needed to verbalize any of the spells, he just had to think them in parsel tongue which was also getting easier and easier to do since he used the language so much now.

Voldemort decided to stop playing games and just ordered Malfoy to assist him in making another homunculus. He would repeat the ritual on the next Summer Solstice, in private, using another enemy, Lucius' pet, minister Fudge, would do nicely as a proxy enemy since he was head of the Ministry, and he would make up for the lack of Potters blood by performing the ritual at Stonehenge.

Harry officially asked Ginny to be his girlfriend and she accepted. The pair was rarely seen apart outside of classes except when they had to be or were chaperoned by the twins.

This years DADA teacher was a Parisian alumnus of Beauxbatons, a young woman named Victoire Renard. She was well liked by the male students for her beauty and the female students for her brains and her strength as an expert duelist. Her edge was speed and a remarkable ability at spell chaining. Harry and friends paid careful attention to learn as much about that as they could.

Back home, Sirius said that he was working on getting the Goblins who are usually neutral, to help them search for any more of Voldemort's horcrux's..., therefore to provide cover for their neutrality, he was simply paying them for their help... toward that end they actually found two more horcrux's. Both in Black family properties. They determined that the pendant which they found at Grimmauld Place was one, and was actually another old relic of Slytherin's. Kreacher revealed how it came to be there via Sirius's brother Regulas, and they now knew there was a fake one where that was supposed to be hidden. Then they found another when they were helping Sirius inspect the Lestrange vault, which he had control over. That one tuned out to be Hufflepuff's cup.

Sirius said that counting the diary and the ring, that was now four and they seemed to be turning up all over the place. Just how many had this sicko made? He also told Harry that the Order of the Dragon and the Goblins agreed that it looked like he was collecting founders relics to use as horcrux's, and that if this was the case, they needed to find Ravenclaw's diadem and Gryffindor's sword, which were two more possibilities. He also told him that there was another hypothesis he wanted to talk to Harry about the next time they saw each other in person.

Harry gathered Dobby's help at the school with his friends while Winky stayed back to tend the castle. Ginny introduced them to her friend Luna Lovegood who was in Ravenclaw and could tell them more about the mystery of the lost diadem. This led Harry to meeting Helena Ravenclaw, the Grey Lady, who finally gave him a clue back to the Room of Requirement in the place where things were hidden, a reference that Dobby understood. In which they found the diadem. They sent it to the Goblins and had it cleansed as well. That was five total, plus Voldemort's surviving wraith form was six, they were theorizing that he would have made seven maximum even though making one was insane. Harry then added the cup, the diadem, and the locket to the restored relics in his castle vault.

At the end of the school year, the day before school got out was the summer solstice. That was also the day of Voldemort's resurrection at Stonehenge. Unfortunately for him and everyone else affected, it was also attended by thirty-seven thousand muggles who go there on that day every year to watch the sunrise on the solstice. Precisely when Voldemort wanted his ritual performed.

Fortunately though, the muggle park authorities didn't allow the people to mingle in the center of the stones, just in a perimeter around it. So Lucius managed to obscure him and Voldemort from muggle view with anti-muggle and notice-me-not charms in the center of the henge. Lucius enervated an imperioused Fudge and took his blood to perform the ritual.

Voldemort rose just as the solstice did. Fudge passed out from the loss of blood and the magical backlash. And Voldemort, despite where he was, feeling euphoric and over confident with his triumph, summoned the rest of his death eaters immediately to gloat.

Unbeknownst to him, the solstice combined with the magical backlash had caused Lucius' charms to fall. If the muggles didn't think the two men in robes next to a large cauldron and another man passed out bleeding on the ground was strange. Well, considering there where many muggles there also dressed in robes and brandishing staves in imitation of druids as well, they definitely noticed something as large waves of blackish vapor seemed to stream in from multiple directions and reformed into masked men wearing the same kind of robes.

Immediately there was shouting and bedlam from the thousands of witnesses, the events themselves had been taped by various news crews for televising a little later with the morning news shows.

Voldemort and his Death Eaters realized they'd been discovered and one of them started screaming at the others and waving around a little stick. Suddenly they were all gone as fast as they appeared, even the cauldron. Except they forgot the one man that laid there bleeding.

The authorities rushed to calm everyone and assumed they had some kind of cult victim there. They got him to medical attention and he lived. How he made it back from the muggle hospital to the Ministry isn't as important as the fact that he witnessed it all himself and while the muggles successfully played it down as the cult slash prank they believed it was, and most of their sheep fell for it, the wizarding world and Fudge himself then knew for certain that Voldemort was indeed back.

The day after that, Harry and friends returned home and learned the news that Voldemort was back, and that the Minister himself witnessed it and witnessed Lucius performing the deed, with his own pensive memory of the incident as proof. Unfortunately none of the summoned followers were unmasked or identified in the brief encounter, but they saw that eleven had responded to him.

Lucius was placed on the most wanted list with Voldemort, Fudge had no choice. Nor did he really want to believe it, but he saw it with his own eyes. Aurors tried to execute the warrant for his arrest but found suddenly they could no longer remember where he lived. The Fidelius obviously. There would be no hiding and pretending his father wasn't guilty of what he was seen doing, but luckily for Draco he got home just before they cast the Fidelius. That would have been awkward for him at least.

Back at Potter Castle, the Horcrux team informed Harry of their hypothesis regarding his scar. He didn't believe it at first but the Goblins knew how to easily check. He was (or rather had contained within him) the sixth horcrux, or seventh piece of Voldemort's soul, if that theory was true.

Harry and all present were naturally very distraught because they knew of no way to rid him of that horcrux that wouldn't kill him in the process.

Harry was moody and broody for days over the news he was a horcrux. Harry told Ginny because he had promised her not to keep such secrets from her. Thanks to the parsel mind magic they knew the information was safe with her.

The Goblins and the Order of the Dragon worked on finding a way to cleanse Harry of the Horcrux without killing him. Meanwhile the Marauders convinced him along with the Weasley trio to get started on their animagus transformation and practicing their apparation. Once Harry got the latter down he would be ready to try to learn parsel magic dimension travel.

Midway through the summer the quartet finally figured out what their forms would be.

Harry was a Wyvern, thirty-five feet long, with four foot head, fifty foot wingspan, could breath fire, had poisonous fangs, and a two foot scorpion like poisonous stinger on his tail. He also had two giant clawed hind legs, and two leathery bat like wings with claws for front feet. (That animal match for him came as a result of his parsel tongue trait, the phoenix tears he ingested, and his dragon friend tattoo). Ginny was an Occamy, a fifteen foot long serpentine bird with two clawed hind legs and an ornate feathered tail. (Also influenced by her parsel tongue ability... instead of being just a normal bird). Fred and George were both ring tailed lemur's and couldn't be more happy with the result. Once they figured out what their forms were, all four secretly learned how to apparate from Remus.

By the end of the summer, all four knew how to apparate, and first Harry and then Ginny easily mastered the parsel magic art of dimension travel, which Harry decided to just call teleportation because, he thought it sounded cooler. He found that form of travel made him invisible and intangible until he willed himself to become visible again and, ignored wards or other spells blocking magical travel. Now it made sense why the book told him to master the intangibility spell as well as apparation before learning to dimension travel. He also figured that because it was so rare, no one had the chance to study it to develop wards against it.

Harry and Ginny also discovered that it truly was travel by alternate dimension. They learned that if they held hands and traveled together that they would travel through the same dimension together and could stop mid stream and just stay immaterial together in their own dimension. They both privately thought that could be put to good use someday, neither voiced that thought, but each blushed slightly as the thought had occurred to them simultaneously.

At the end of the summer, Tonks from her double-agent role between the two orders reported to the Order of the Dragon that the Order of the Phoenix was starting to protect access to a prophecy about Voldemort and Harry that Voldemort was said to be after.

Harry, being disgusted by another one of Dumbledore's secrets about him that he has kept _from_ him, learned from Tonks how to get to the prophecy himself and Remus conjured him a fake one that he could replace it with. Then he teleported to the Ministry, remained intangible, followed someone to the Department of Mysteries, swapped them when no one was looking, then teleported home.

When he got back to headquarters, they played the prophecy. Ginny cried but not as much as she did when she learned about the horcrux. The twins just said, "Well that was the bet we would have taken anyway, except that we _know_ Harry will win that fight like he always does." Which cheered up Ginny a little bit.

Sirius and Remus said, "Well probably so, but that explains why Voldemort is after it if he only heard the first part. He knew you were a danger to him, knew that you have defeated him at every turn so far, so he probably won't want to go forward with his end game plan without knowing that first. Which is why we must keep this secret now as jealously as Albus does. But, while he waits to get his hands on it, it buys us some time."

Do you think we should tell Dumbles that we know it then? as well as swapped it? asked Harry.

I don't think so. We don't want them becoming a leak for us and we know that within the Order of the Phoenix, probably only Albus knows exactly what they are guarding and why." said Sirius.

"With the Order in place guarding it, it gives Voldemort the impression there is something very important that needs getting." said Remus.

"Doesn't that make us as bad as Albus though, using them like that? and what if one of them gets hurt or dies when we could have prevented it?" asked Harry.

"You've got a point there. If it was just Albus himself I'd say let it go but, as it is he is probably the only one in his Order that won't be put into any danger over it..." said Sirius.

"Okay. Once Dumbledore calls me in for next years start of term interrogation, I will tell him I did it. I won't involve any of you in that so that he isn't tempted to let Snape leak something about one of you knowing it in order to bolster his cover. I know he wont risk me with that yet. As far as he knows, it's not the proper time for his weapon to sacrifice himself yet." said Harry.

Ginny cried out, "Don't talk like that Harry."

"Gin," Harry said. "It's not like that's what I want to do, but we all agreed from what we know so far and what he has gone to great lengths to keep from me, that _is_ probably _his_ plan. So when I'm plotting something to do with him, I've got to take into account what _he_ believes plans are.

"This is going to be touchy. This will be the first time I let it be known that I am aware of certain strategic information about my own life that he's been keeping from me, and that I've acted on it." said Harry.

"Will you tell him about our Order then?" asked Remus.

"If I feel its necessary or useful I will, but I won't tell him who is a member. I can be just as aloof and secretive as the old man can be.

...

**Hogwarts Year 6**

One Dolores Umbridge was sent to Hogwarts by Minister Fudge, to keep a strong eye on Dumbledore. Fortunately for Harry though, she did not come there with any particular interest in him. So, it would depend on how Harry reacted to her.

(_A/N: Yes I know that in canon this was fifth year, things are slightly different in this story, while some things are slightly the same. Don't pet the sweaty stuff_).

...

As promised, when Harry was brought in front of Dumbledore for his annual interrogation, he told him that he learned from his own sources that Voldemort was after a prophecy recording made about himself and Voldemort when he was a baby. And that he had snuck into the Prophecy Room at the Ministry and removed it and replaced it with a fake.

So, he could either keep pretending to guard it if he wanted, or now that he knew that the prophecy that was there was fake, he could stop and return to going about his own business and stop meddling in matters that didn't concern him or the school.

Snape fumed at Potter's blatant disrespect for Dumbledore, but he wasn't about to punish his own house and he frankly didn't want to spend time supervising punishments for the boy either. But, he worried that eventually Dumbledore would snap and punish Potter and Slytherin House on his own. But, he never did.

"Really? How do you know all these things? And I really wish you would watch your mouth Mr. Potter. I am the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot. Everything that goes on in wizarding Britain, _is_ my business. Is _that_ clear?" replied Dumbledore.

"Whatever. You knew about it obviously and it was about _me_ personally, but you didn't think it was worth mentioning _to_ me, and it _is_ my business certainly." replied Harry.

"As for how I know. I am investigating Mr. Flight from Death's horcrux's and plan to get rid of all of them so I can get the creep off my back once and for all; now that he has shown his ugly nose around the world again." said Harry.

"As I implied, I do know the full contents of the prophecy. So, I will be doing my level best to make sure he loses and I win. Whatever would you expect me to be doing?" said Harry.

Dumbledore is having so much about Harry revealed to him that he almost didn't know what to ask next.

"How is it you know about his horcrux's too? That is forbidden dark magic that you should never have even heard of." said Dumbledore.

"Yes, it is. And I would have loved to have gone my whole life without ever having heard of it. Unfortunately, I have the biggest nutter in the world who uses them that happens to also be after me." said Harry.

"To answer your question, directly this time, for once. I learned about them from the Goblins who discovered a couple of them in my Slytherin inheritance. We've been doing a search for them ever since. Also, we sussed out that the diary from my second year had been one too." said Harry.

"You know too much Mr. Potter. I'm afraid I cannot let you leave here with all that knowledge." said Dumbledore.

"Really? Well then, I suppose I will need to show you how I managed to sneak in and out of the Ministry to get that prophecy then." said Harry, wandlessly and wordlessly using his parsel magic to turn intangible and walk straight through Dumbledore's door and out of his office.

...

Dumbledore sat there with an equally stunned Snape. He just turned to him and said. "Find him and when you do, test his Occlumency to see if he can protect that information at least."

Later in the day, Snape confronted Harry in their next class and just calmly asked him to come to his office afterward. At which time Snape explained that Dumbledore wanted him to test Harry's Occlumency skill to see if he could protect that sensitive information. Harry just played along and said, "sure, go ahead."

"Legilimens." said Snape strongly with his wand pointed directly between Harry's eyes.

The longer Snape tried to get in the more his own head started to feel like it was just buzzing or hissing or something. It was giving him a bad headache. So he stopped.

"Potter, I don't know what you've done. But I can't get in at all. All I find of your mind is a strange buzzing or hissing sound. It's maddening, and the longer I stay there trying to get in the worse it makes me feel. How are you doing that?" said Snape.

"Tricks of the trade I'm afraid, Professor. But, thanks for letting me know what it was like from the other side of people trying to break in. I've only had people quickly test my surface thoughts and get nothing before. It's nice to know that a strong concerted effort will actually hurt the person attacking me, over time." replied Harry.

"Oh, yes. And before I forget. How did you turn invisible and walk right through the door, at least that is what we supposed you did." said Snape.

"Sorry sir. More tricks of the trade. Same trade though, if that helps you." said Harry.

Harry was surprised the usually sharp mind of Snape hadn't put two and two together yet. He was after all the one whom worked closely with him when he used parsel tongue during the Basilisk incident in his second year.

...

A few days later, Voldemort who in his youth possessed the very same book that Harry possessed, had the same idea and intangibly snuck into the Prophecy Room at the Ministry to obtain the prophecy for himself, when he learned that it could only be removed by the people whom the prophecy is about. At first he was simply too lazy to be bothered until he had no choice. That was what he had servants for in the first place, but it seemed they couldn't do anything right.

The only message he got from the orb was "Ee-dee nah hooy." Luckily for his sanity he didn't know what that meant. But, later back at his hidden throne room deep in the Malfoy estate, one of his minions who spoke Russian, explained it to him. Not being used to having one of his slaves speak in such language to him, he killed the man on the spot before he could even think straight and then screamed: "Pottttttttterrrrrrr!"

...

Later in the year, when certain Gryffindor's got tired of not learning any real Defense Against the Dark Arts from Professor Umbridge. They sent their ambassador, one Ginny Weasley, Harry's girlfriend, to ask Harry if he would teach them some things.

Ginny, Fred, George, and Harry never openly complained about Umbridge's lack of teaching acumen, because they just continued to meet in private and train and practice on their own. But, since Ginny asked on behalf of their other loser brother Ron. Ron of course brought along Hermione, then Hermione of course wanted to invite other friends and some fifth years who were afraid of failing their owls, before you knew it a whole club had formed.

Harry just wanted to know how he got himself into those things. Oh, yeah, this time it was Ginny's fault. If anything went wrong, he could blame her.

They'd already guessed that the reason Umbridge wasn't teaching real defense and nothing practical, was not because she didn't believe Voldemort was back. Everyone knew that now, but because Fudge didn't want Dumbledore building his own private army to challenge his political power at the Ministry. Yes, Fudge was that paranoid and delusional. And well, Umbridge was also rather incapable of teaching the subject, due to a rather substantial lack of knowledge in the subject herself.

So, naturally just to make fun of Dumbledore, they called their little club Dumbledore's Army.

It was even more funny when they finally got caught and Dumbledore had to take the blame for the entire thing and almost got thrown out of the school. Harry didn't stop laughing for a week.

...

As the sixth year came to a close, Harry was summoned to Dumbledore's office again for Dumbledore to make another pitch at Harry to get more of his cooperation now that even he admitted Voldemort was back and knew about certain things. That they should work together.

"I know about your Order of the Phoenix, Professor. I have friends of my own who have come together around me in a group that we call the Order of the Dragon." and Harry lifted the sleeve of his left arm to remind him of his living dragon tattoo.

"I don't plan on working for you. This is personal for me. But, I don't care if you do things that are helpful on the whole. So, do what you want as long as it doesn't get in our way. I will tell you that we believe we have found and destroyed all of his horcrux's except one, but we don't know what that is." said Harry.

"We will continue to search for it. If you can find it before we do then more power to you. Then I can end him, according to the prophecy. And toward that end, I am training my ass off to be able to fight well enough to take him on someday. I have no idea when that will be, but I'm working on it. If it were not for the stupid prophecy, I would say by all means take care of the whole thing yourself. But, I've come to understand it has to be me. That is why I am taking the fight to him my own way." said Harry.

Dumbledore just thought for a moment. It didn't sound like Harry had come to guess that he was a horcrux himself yet. That might give him the opening he needed to see this got done right. So, he would adjust strategy a little bit.

"Alright then Mr. Potter. Then a truce between us if you will. I will stop trying to meddle in your affairs, hoping that you can continue to keep yourself protected. I am going on the assumption that if I could not find out where you live that Tom would not either. Just be careful in public okay?" said Dumbledore, trying to sound conciliatory.

Harry just nodded along in acceptance.

"I will look for the other horcrux you think is still out there. Can you tell me what objects you have found so far, so that I don't waste time looking in the wrong directions?" asked Dumbledore.

"Okay, sure. The one's we are sure of are: the Diary, there was a Peverell Ring in the old Gaunt house that I inherited; there was Hufflepuff's Cup which happened to be locked in Bellatrix Lestrange's vault, which Sirius currently has control of while she is in Azkaban."

Dumbledore had been nodding along and on the Cup, said "Ah, yes. That was a good find. That would've been very tricky otherwise."

"Yes, definitely." said Harry. "We also found Rowena Ravenclaw's lost diadem, hidden here at Hogwarts; and there was Slytherin's locket which was actually hidden in Sirius's old ancestral home. Apparently it was originally found by his brother Regulas Black who wanted to destroy it but got himself killed in the attempt and ordered his house-elf Kreacher to destroy it."

"We have surmised he might have made seven since it is the most magically powerful number in Arithmancy. If we are right, then we figure there is one more object, plus his original soul which is now back in a body. So, seven. Since he seems to have been after founder's relics to use, we are looking for something of Gryffindor's next. So far, that's the only founder we haven't found an object tied to one of them. Possibly Gryffindor's lost sword, according to Sirius. But, we don't know yet." said Harry.

"Good. Thanks for sharing all that with me Harry. I will begin a search for relics myself then. Thank you for allowing me in and trusting me a little bit." said Dumbledore.

"That's okay sir. As long as you're with me and not against me, and not trying to stop me from doing what I have to do." said Harry.

"Not at all. I think we are finally on the same page, my boy." said Dumbledore.

Privately Dumbledore thought Harry didn't seem to know that the number one thing he was _going to have to do_ would be to die to see that Voldemort could. That he was the last Horcrux. But, now he would have some opportunity to prepare Harry for that. He thought he knew just how to do that, he would start next year, taking advantage of the apparent thaw in their relationship.

Privately Harry thought there was no way he would let Dumbledore know that _he knew_ he was a horcrux. One, they didn't know for certain if Dumbledore himself suspected it, they just _thought_ he did. If there was a chance he didn't know they didn't want to let that get out. Next, they all believed that Dumbledore wouldn't work hard like they were doing to find a way to get it safely out of him. Rather, that he would just maneuver him into position to be sacrificed, maybe even kill him himself, just to get to the end game with Voldemort. Well, naturally he wouldn't really get his own hands dirty, but however he did it, it would amount to the same thing. Harry just felt, if they could use Dumbledore a little bit along the way while keeping him in the dark on the most vital things, so much the better.

Which of course was the same thing that Dumbledore thought about Harry as he said his goodbyes and left the office to get ready for the leaving feast.


End file.
